


Christmas for the Soul(mate)

by MagicalMysteryGirl



Series: For the Soul(mate) [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, BAMF Skye | Daisy Johnson, Christmas, Christmas Tree, Clint is lonely, Darcy and Skye will be BFFs, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Happily Ever After, I'm just making tags up now, Introducing a few new characters, Running, Should he have his own soulmate?, Skye has a super-secret super team, Skye is a good hacker, Skye is scared, Skye | Daisy Johnson's Superpowers, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Steve is determined, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2016-01-02
Packaged: 2018-05-09 03:24:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 35,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5523656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagicalMysteryGirl/pseuds/MagicalMysteryGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While out Christmas tree shopping with his teammates, Steve runs into the one person who can make him feel completely whole again: his Soulmate! But when she runs away he enlists the help of his friends to track her down, never realizing what finding her will change. </p><p>Ever since she first realized her soulmate's words were about Christmas trees Skye made it a point to visit Christmas tree lots every year as many times as possible. When she finally does meet her soulmate she is surprised to discover that it is Captain America. Realizing that the secrets she has to keep from him (namely Coulson's continued existance, her job as a SHIELD agent and her powers) would make it too difficult for their soulbond to ever fully form, she runs.</p><p>Christmas is about being together and finding peace and hope, can these two soulmates find each other again?<br/>Sequel to Thanksgiving for the Soul(mate)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Steve Meets Soulmate

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone!
> 
> So, here it is, the Christmas sequel I implied I might write! So many of you were eager to read it that I found the inspiration I needed to write it! There are admittedly a few parts about this story that I'm not sure I got quite right, but overall I think it worked out. I have all the chapters written for this story, so it will be posted over the next few days. This is a few chapters longer than the last one and the format is slightly different (despite my best efforts) but hopefully you all enjoy it just the same!
> 
> Also, the whole Daisy/Skye thing really threw me while typing this so I decided to go with Skye instead of Daisy even though she is known by Daisy now. (Like Coulson it is taking me a while to get used to the name change). I also pick and chose only bits of Season 3 of AoS to keep in the story, mostly because I don't know how to handle what has been happening in the show. So for my own peace of mind I just picked the parts I wanted to keep (Like Kebo and Coulson's metal hand) and ignored the rest. 
> 
> Happy Holidays to all of you!

“You’ve been staring at her the whole time we’ve been here Punk,” Bucky stated with a roll of his eyes, “Go talk to her,” his elbow was as sharp as Steve remembered.

Steve frowned at him and shook his head, “Just because you’ve found your soulmate and the two of you are happy in love doesn’t mean you have to keep trying to set me up with every dame out there, Jerk,” he tried to avoid the suggestion to go talk to the short haired brunette browsing through the Brooklyn tree lot Darcy had dragged the Avengers to.

“What are the two of you doing just standing around here?” Darcy chirped, suddenly appearing at Bucky’s side, her arms sliding around his waist and a grin stealing across her red lips, “I’m pretty sure if you boys don’t start looking we’re all going to go home with whatever sad thing Clint picks out,” she gestured to where Clint was vigorously gesturing to the skimpy tree beside him to Natasha. Steve could barely make out words about the tree being an underdog who deserved a good home.

Bucky turned his head and stole a quick kiss from his girl, “Just tryin’ to convince Stevie to go and talk to the dame he’s been staring at all night,” he nodded subtly to the woman who had moved around to study another tree with an absent look on her face.

Darcy wasn’t so subtle about turning to stare, “She’s pretty,” she decided before turning back to Steve, “You should talk to her, who knows what could happen?” she threw up her arms and backed away from Bucky a little so she could spin without hitting him, “It’s Christmas!” she laughed and smiled up at the small flakes of snow that had been slowly floating from the sky for the last few days, “Magical things can happen at Christmas you know,” she told them both seriously with a twinkle in her eyes.

He didn’t even have to look at Bucky to see the besotted look on his best friends face, but he did anyway. (He liked seeing his friend so happy after everything he’d lost, sue him.) Sure enough Bucky was watching her with such a look of love and bafflement (he’d confessed a few days before how he still couldn’t quite wrap his head around lucking out with a girl like Darcy) and Steve knew his friend well enough to know that a bunch of PDA was about to follow so he just sighed and gave in to their demands.

“Fine,” he reluctantly agreed, “I’ll go talk to her,” he took a small step in the woman’s direction before giving them both a look, “But if this goes wrong the two of you will drop this whole setting-me-up thing for the next month, _at least_ ,” he pointed his finger at them and narrowed his eyes.

Bucky rolled his eyes again, already pulling Darcy into his arms and nuzzling at her neck, “Deal,” Darcy giggled, her gloved hands sliding into Bucky’s hair.

Steve pulled his eyes away from the two of them with a shake of his head, he knew they weren’t excluding him on purpose, and he knew that their attempts to set him up in the last two weeks had been just as much to help him as anything. When Steve and Darcy had shown up with Bucky in tow to Thanksgiving dinner, the Avengers had all welcomed him with open arms and encouragement, but it hadn’t taken long for one of them (Tony) to approach Steve with their concern.

Beyond the fact that Bucky was a supposedly un-brainwashed ex-HYDRA assassin who might flip any second and go on a killing spree (Tony’s words, not his), the team was worried about the new dynamic between Steve, Bucky and Darcy. Apparently there was some concern that Steve and/or Darcy would become jealous or greedy about their time with Bucky which in turn would create strife between the two of them, which would wind up causing problems for the whole team (Steve was their leader in the field, Darcy was their leader in nearly everything else and both were cared for by the whole team, a fight between them caused rifts faster than anything else could).

Steve had waved the team’s concern away, becoming jealous of his best friend spending time with his soulmate would be petty, and Steve prided himself on not being petty. But he’d been surprised to discover not even a day later that their concerns had been valid.

While Darcy didn’t begrudge him his time with Bucky, he found himself feeling a little selfish and not wanting to share his best friend for the first few days. Darcy had gracefully allowed the two of them to spend as much time together as they wanted for the first week or so and likely would have allowed it to continue, but thankfully it only took Steve that long to figure out what he was doing. Once he realized he was monopolizing Bucky’s time and keeping him from his soulmate (unintentionally, he hadn’t really meant to) he’d done more to invite Darcy to join them. He’d always been close with Darcy so it wasn’t exactly a hardship.

After watching the two of them be together for a while he’d come to realize just how…right they were together. He’d been correct in thinking that they would be perfect for each other all those years ago when he’d first noticed Darcy’s soulmark. Darcy balanced Bucky’s serious mood swings and Bucky was the calm to Darcy’s crazy moments. Once he really recognized the compatibility between them he found it became much easier to share his best friend. Now he loved watching the two of them grow closer together, but watching them brought out an increasing loneliness in him that he hadn’t really recognized before.

Waking up in this new time had been hard, everyone he’d ever known was either dead or dying and he had missed so much. He’d secluded himself from everyone, which made it easier to live in denial about what had happened, while giving himself the space to try an wrap his head around it all. When Fury had showed up with a mission to 'save' the world the SHIELD director had unintentionally (or maybe intentionally, you never knew with that man) saved Steve; he provided him with a team and friends the likes of which he’d never had.

He’d been undeniably close with the Commandos, but after so much time with the Avengers he was able to recognize that he was somehow (inexplicably and unprecedentedly) closer with the Avengers than he’d been with his old team. It had bothered him at first to realize it, but now…he knew the Commandos would never have held it against him for being close to his new team. When he’d discovered Bucky was still alive he’d received more support from his new team than he’d ever thought possible. Even Tony (whose parents they were all fairly certain were killed by Bucky) had extended his not-so-insignificant resources to help bring Bucky home.

Having his best friend walk in the door with his soulmate by his side had paradoxically flipped Steve’s world on its head and returned it to its former rightness. Now with Bucky home, safe and occasionally joining him and his team out in the field (it had only happened about three times now-the team was still cautious about him when it came to combat situations) it was like having the best of both worlds.

Now if only he could fill that one last hole in his chest, the one meant for his soulmate, whoever they were, he’d be able to really feel whole and content.

His heart raced a little as he approached the smaller woman (he never really had mastered the ability to talk to women) and his eyes took a moment to study her profile. There was something Asian about her features, though it wasn’t super obvious, and her hair hung a few inches past her shoulders, curling with small, natural looking waves. She was wearing a black leather jacket, dark blue jeans, scuffed and loved combat boots and a dark blue beanie. He watched a couple stand near her for a moment to study the same tree she was looking at and tilted his head curiously as he realized that she looked for all the world as if she were only vaguely aware of where she was in that moment. Her thoughts were visibly far away as she slowly sauntered from one tree to the next, standing still every few seconds to contemplate the different trees.

Sidling up to the tree next to the one she was staring at he blurted out the first thing he could think of, “ **I’ve always been more of a Noble Fir fan myself, but Douglas Firs are a good second** ,” he tucked his hands into his pockets nervously, his eyes watching her cautiously. Over his shoulder he could hear Tony scoffing something to Rhodey (who was off duty for the next few weeks) and a low ooff that meant Rhodey had done something physical in retaliation to defend Steve from whatever joking comment Tony had made.

The woman turned to look at him with wide chocolate brown eyes. Her lips parted with surprise and moved as if they were struggling to put words together. She shifted in place until she was facing him fully, her hands tucked into the front pockets of her jacket, “ **Those are my words** ,” she breathed, her eyes gaining a light sheen to them, “ **You have no idea how badly I needed to meet you right now** ,” she swallowed and shook her head, still gaping at him. Suddenly her eyes widened in recognition, “ **You’re—I'm sorry but I have to go!** ”

And then before Steve could fully process that he’d just found his soulmate (his _soulmate_!) in the middle of a Brooklyn tree lot, the woman spun on her heel and took off. It took him a second longer than he was proud of to realize what had just taken place, but when it finally sunk in his eyes widened and he found his feel already propelling him after her. He dodged around random Christmas tree shoppers, and even ran into Sam and Wanda in his hurry to catch up with his soulmate, but by the time he’d reached the street she was gone.

Head spinning as he looked up and down the street for any sign of her, Steve frowned and stumbled back a step when he finally recognized that she was nowhere to be seen. He hadn’t even gotten a name. His chest constricted painfully as he played over the last few minutes, his soulmate felt she needed to meet him, had _wanted_ to meet him, but then…what had scared her enough to send her running from him?

“Well,” Bucky’s familiar voice spoke from behind him, “I’ve seen a lot of dames have a lot of reactions to you askin’ them out over the years Punk,” Steve didn’t look at him, but he could feel him move to stand at his right, “But that one _really_ took the cake. You must have seriously put your foot in it to send her runnin’ so fast.”

Steve took a slow deep breath to try and calm the adrenaline surging through his veins, “She’s my soulmate,” he stated, finally turning his head a minute later to look over at Bucky’s stunned expression.

The surprise slowly slid from his friend's face to be replaced with irritation and anger, “And she just took off like that?” the Brooklyn was strong in his voice as his arm thrust out to the side, “What’s wrong with her?”

Feeling the urge to protect and defend his soulmate Steve quickly shook his head, “I don’t…I think she might have been scared.”

“Of what?” Bucky exclaimed, following him as he turned around to walk quickly back into the tree lot, “You’re Captain America.”

Steve shook his head, a low feeling of dread sinking in his stomach as he realized, “I think that may have been why she ran,” he voiced his thoughts, “She said she needed to meet me, she _needed_ me, Buck, but then she seemed to realize who I was,” his voice trailed off absently as he peered down rows of trees, spotting his friends and teammates as he went but not the friend he was looking for, “and that’s when she ran.”

Bucky’s hand caught his arm just as Steve caught sight of Tony, “Steve, only bad guys run from Captain America,” his concern was obvious.

“She’s not a bad guy Buck,” he disagreed immediately, he’d had that concern himself for a split second but he’d seen enough bad people in his life to know the woman hadn’t been one of them (besides, something inside him just… _knew_ she was a good person), “Tony!” he called picking up his pace to approach his teammate, “I need a favor.”

Tony arched an eyebrow at him, his arm sliding around Pepper as she stepped into his side, “Does this favor have to do with that girl you were chasing a minute ago?”

“My soulmate,” Steve acknowledged with a nod, “I…she…could you, I don’t know…I need to find her,” the desperation that peaked through his voice wasn’t a weakness he normally allowed people to see or hear, but this was his soulmate they were talking about, he could let his emotions show when it came to her.

The genius’s stare was heavy and intense for a moment before he gave a firm nod, “Right,” he turned to Pepper and pressed a quick kiss to her lips before pulling away, “Let’s get back to the Tower,” he told Steve, “The team can finish finding the tree or trees they want while we do some digging.”

Pepper smiled and rolled her eyes, giving into the urge Steve was resisting, (Tony was set on having an army of trees in his Tower this year, and no one could figure out why), “We’ll be home soon,” she agreed stepping forward into Tony to give him a longer kiss, “Do good work boys,” she patted Tony on the chest and then turned to saunter away.

Tony watched her go for a second before turning back to Steve, “Well?” he waved his arms importantly, “What are we waiting for? Soulmates to find and all,” he stepped forward and deliberately walked into the six inches between Steve and Bucky to force them to part for him as he headed towards the entrance to the tree lot.

Steve glanced over at Bucky to find his friend already watching him, “You want me to come?” Bucky offered.

Sighing and shaking his head, Steve scratched the back of his neck, “No,” he waved the offer away, “You stay and pick out your tree with Darcy, I’ll let you know if anything comes up.”

“You’ll find her,” his friend seemed certain. His hand clasped Steve’s shoulder and pulled, jerking him into a quick hug before sending him off.

Turning around Steve hurried to catch up with Tony just in time to see Happy pull up in front of the tree lot in his favorite Stark SUV. Tony slid into the back seat before Happy could get the door for him, and Steve followed a moment later. Shutting the door behind him he fidgeted and shifted in place as Happy pulled back into traffic.

“So,” Tony started, “Your soulmate huh?” his hands were fiddling with his phone, pressing buttons and things as he spoke without looking at Steve. Before Steve could acknowledge this face Tony held the phone up to display a picture, “This her?”

It was a blurry picture and the woman’s face was partly turned away from the screen, but Steve recognized her immediately, “Yes,” he breathed, resisting the urge to take the phone from Tony so he could stare at the only image he currently had of his soulmate, “How did you get that?”

Tony smirked, “Well when Captain America takes off running after someone it generally is in the population’s best interest to figure out who that someone is,” he waved his phone,“So I snapped a pic so I could do that,” he shrugged and turned back to his screen, “JARVIS is already running facial rec, he should have something by the time we get back to the Tower.”

Steve’s head fell back against the seat and he gave a small relieved sigh, Tony would find her, “Thanks,” he murmured.

Not saying anything else, Tony just grunted and continued doing whatever it was he was doing on his phone. The rest of the ride was uneventful (with the exception of Happy vocalizing his opinion about New York drivers every few minutes) and within half an hour they were exiting the elevator to Tony’s lab.

Absently greeting Dum-E as he rolled up and chirped, Steve frowned when he noticed the perplexed look on Tony’s face, “What is it?” he inquired, following Tony to one of his randomly placed monitors.

“Huh,” was the only answer he got, “What are the odds…” the other man muttered to himself as he began typing, his eyes focused on the screen. Whatever he was doing didn’t fix the problem and a few seconds later he was frowning and twirling around to approach another air screen, “That can’t be right…” he spoke up louder then, “J, get me the—yes that and could you…good,” different screens popped up in the space around where Tony was now standing at.

“What’s going on Tony?” Steve demanded, quickly losing his patience.

However it was JARVIS who answered his question, “It appears this woman does not exist on any database I can gain access to Captain,” he shared, “I have sufficient points of reference to create an accurate representation of the woman’s face, but I cannot locate its match anywhere.”

Steve frowned, that didn’t match with what he knew of this century. Everyone seemed to have a picture somewhere, most had more than a few, in fact, “How is that possible?” he questioned, his eyes scanning over the rapidly changing screens in front of Tony.

“That’s the thing,” Tony answered this time, “It’s not,” he shook his head, his fingers flying, “Not technically. She should have some record of her existence _somewhere_ , a driver’s license, a student ID, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Thumbsit, even YouTube or other random social media sites. Even if she doesn’t have an account anywhere online, her face should show up in at least one other picture _somewhere,_ even if it’s just in the background of _someone_ _else’s_ picture,” he was quiet for a moment as he flipped whatever was on the screen out into his larger hologram projector area revealing thousands of pictures and files of women who looked similar to Steve’s soulmate but weren’t her at all, “The fact that she isn’t…” he trailed off, flipping through some of the pictures.

“What?” Steve prodded, he had some of his own thoughts but he wasn’t sure he wanted to be the one to voice them.

Tony faced him full on, “The fact that she isn’t so easily found tells me she doesn’t _want_ to be found,” he glanced at the fluctuating pictures, “whether that’s because she’s running and hiding from someone or something, she’s a hacker or some other sort of criminal or,” he paused, “or she’s a spy for an unknown entity, I can’t say for sure.”

“Why unknown?” he had to know, “Wouldn’t the CIA or whoever keeps their pictures from being easily discovered?”

The genius nodded, “Yes, but I’ve already been through their records,” he stared absently at the information in front of them, “Whoever she does work for, if she is a spy,” he shook his head thoughtfully, “we don’t know about them.”

“Or she’s HYDRA,” Steve didn’t want to tiptoe around the matter.

There was a small silent pause before Tony gave a sigh that brought Steve’s eyes over to him, “I wish I could tell you that she wasn’t,” he really seemed like he did, “But yeah, she might be HYDRA,” he gestured to the computers behind him, “I’ll keep looking though,” he added, “If nothing else we should be able to find her on ATM and traffic cameras, maybe figure out where she went.”

Steve gave a small nod, forcing down the sigh and the urge to hit something to keep his face stoic, “Let me know what you find,” he ordered before turning and heading for the elevator.

“Cap,” Tony called, bringing him to a stop, “We’ll find her.”

He could think of nothing further to say, he knew Tony would do his best and if it were possible to find her, Tony would be the one to do so; so he just nodded his head once more, shoved his hands in his pockets and stepped into the elevator.

They would find her. His hand slid to his chest to rub at the words scrawled over his heart as it ached at the thought of never finding her again. Her words replayed in his head; he’d find her, not just because he needed her, but because she sounded like she needed him. Whatever it was she needed from him, he longed to be there for her, to provide it for her.

He’d find her, and when he did, he was never going to let her go.


	2. Skye Tells Coulson

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye tells Coulson who her soulmate is and they try to figure out how to handle the situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Chapter two is here! I will be posting chapter three later today since this chapter is so short! Thank you to everyone who commented and gave kudos!
> 
> Hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season!

Skye tossed her jacket down on the dark couch in her office with a sigh. Shoving her hands into her hair and tugging she paced back and forth in front of her desk for a few turns before growling with frustration and dropping onto the couch.

 _Of course_ she’d finally meet her soulmate only to have it turn out to be  _Captain Freaking America!_ The universe loved to mess with her, didn’t it?

Ever since she first learned what the Nobel and Douglas Firs mentioned in her soulmate's first words to her were when she was six she’d taken to haunting Christmas tree lots as often as she could. She’d frequently go missing from the orphanage for hours during the Christmas season while she wandered around the city looking all the different pine trees. 

For a few years when she'd been young there had been a woman named Holly who ran an annual tree lot near the orphanage. Holly had always seemed to have a smile for everyone, but through her near daily visits, the older woman had come to know her well enough to greet her each time with a hug and a warm thermos of hot chocolate. She’d used to fruitlessly dream that Holly would one day greet her in the usual fashion but this time, this _one special time_ , it would come with the added bonus of adoption papers. 

About the time she was fifteen, Holly had developed serious lung cancer and had been forced to close the tree lot. By the time Skye had turned sixteen, dropped out of high school and run away from the orphanage and the constantly rotating foster families, Holly had passed away, taking with her Skye’s childish dreams of ever finding someone to care about her.

That had been the only year she had missed going to a tree lot.

She’d convinced herself to go back the next year, memories of Holly and her warm encouragement not to give up on finding her soulmate compelling her to give her search yet another shot.  Over the years she’d gone to hundreds of Christmas tree lots, waiting for the right lot, the right tree, the right person,  _the_ person.  After she’d joined SHIELD there hadn’t been much time to visit many tree lots, but this year things were slower, more…normal.

Everyone was gone for the holidays, Bobbi and Hunter had taken off to go visit Bobbi’s sister on some secluded farm somewhere, Mack was home visiting his family as were Fitz and Jemma.  May was finally giving Coulson a chance as her soulmate to try and win her over in a romantic capacity and the two of them had set off for parts unknown. Trip was off spending the holiday with his grandmother while Lincoln and Yo-Yo were visiting some of Lincoln’s old Inhuman friends in South America, and the rest of her Caterpillars were either off exploring somewhere or hunkering down at the Cocoon for an uneventful Christmas break.

The Cocoon (the Inhuman/Enhanced base located in Manhattan she’d been placed in charge of for the last year) was quiet for once with only a few people wandering around, most of them Inhumans who had little or no control of their abilities yet and were therefore unable to go anywhere they might accidentally hurt someone or themselves. A few others simply had nowhere else to go; others like her.

Skye had been feeling especially lonely tonight and had decided to take a little trip to a Christmas tree lot in Brooklyn for tradition’s sake (that the smell of pine trees and the laughter and fun that could be found in tree lots never failed to give her a sense of peace and home was just a bonus).  But then of course, the _one_ time she’d gone without the desire to find her soulmate he’d found her.

_Captain America had found her._

_Captain America_ was her _soulmate_!  How did that even happen?

She sighed and sank further back into the cushions. Wishing for a moment that the wall behind the couch wasn’t made of see through glass so that she wouldn’t have to worry about one of the few people on base spotting her in a moment of weakness, Skye closed her eyes and tried to figure out what to do next.  She couldn’t just ignore him, Steve Rogers deserved better than that, but what else could she do?  There was no way she could tell him what she did for a living, and the fact that she had abilities of her own could potentially be off putting for him.

And then there was the whole Coulson thing. Steve thought Coulson was dead, all the Avengers did; she couldn’t just share that particular piece of information with them without okaying it with Coulson first. And she better than most knew that the likelihood of _that_ ever happening was not very high.

Skye wanted more than anything to have a stable bond with her soulmate but everyone knew keeping secrets from your soulmate was exactly how _un_ stable bonds were formed.  She’d once been in a foster home (one of the few she used to pray fruitlessly every night would decide to keep her) where the parents had had one of the strongest and most pure bonds Skye had ever seen. She’d decided while she was in their home that _that_ was what she wanted when she grew up.

It didn’t look likely that she was going to get that now.

A few tears welled up in her eyes and her chest constricted painfully with that realization.  She forced the tears back and blinked them away, she was tougher than this. She could handle this. She could…figure something out.

As her phone began to sing the 60s theme song for the Captain America cartoon she knew Coulson loved, Skye couldn’t help a groan from escaping, nor did she hold back the snort of reluctant amusement she felt at the irony of that song playing just now, “Hey,” she greeted Coulson as she answered her phone (maybe he would have some ideas? What could it hurt to talk to him about it, right?).

“Hey Skye,” he replied, she could hear the relaxed smile in his voice, “How are things going back in the States?”

She sat up a little, “So you’re _not_ in the US?” she clarified; trying to figure out where Coulson and May were vacationing was her most recent puzzle. They’d left with an ambiguous ‘we’ll be around’ and every time they’d made contact since they'd left had given her one more piece of the where-are-May-and-Coulson puzzle she’d been piecing together in her spare time. (More for fun than an actual desire to know. They deserved the break; she just liked a good puzzle.)

Coulson huffed a small amused laugh, “No, we’re not in the US,” he admitted, “We’re somewhere very warm.”

“You’re lying,” Skye retorted after a pause, “You’re not somewhere warm,” she narrowed her eyes sightlessly at the overstuffed chair on the other side of the room, “I’ll figure it out, you’ll see,” she told him, “And things are fine, quiet,” her feet came up to rest on the glass and steel coffee table.

She could practically hear his mind turning her words over, “Fine?” she winced as he caught the one word that gave her emotional state away, “Skye? What’s going on?”

Squeezing her eyes shut for a moment before rubbing her hand over her face, Skye gave a long heavy sigh, “I met my soulmate,” she admitted straight out.

There was a pause on the other end of the line before Coulson spoke up, “At a tree lot?” he was one of the few people who knew about her yearly tradition so it didn’t surprise her that this was one of his first questions.

“Yes,” she murmured, “In Brooklyn.”

“And?” he prodded, “Is he a bad person? HYDRA? I’m getting the feeling from you that something is wrong,” his voice was cautious, concerned (fatherly, though she didn’t point it out), “Shouldn’t you be happy you found him?”

Skye sighed again, “I am,” she started, “It’s just…” she trailed off unsure all of a sudden of how Coulson was going to take the news that his childhood hero was her soulmate.

“Skye?” Coulson’s tone turned soft, coaxing her to share her concerns, “Whatever it is, we’ll deal with it,” he tried to reassure her.

“I don’t know if we can,” she told him softly, the knot in her throat was growing by the second.

Coulson sighed, “Skye,” he started, “Do you know him? Why don’t you think we can handle it?”

“It’s Captain America,” she blurted, unable to hold it back anymore. Launching to her feet she began pacing again, “My soulmate is Steve Rogers! I mean,” her hand slid into her hair in frustration, “What are the odds right? One of the few people on the planet I can’t just do a security check on before I tell him what I do for a living and he's my soulmate,” she shook her head, “What do I do Coulson?”

The silence on the other side of the phone was both foreboding and stunned, “What do you want to do?” he finally asked.

Something in her lifted as Skye realized he wasn’t telling her to forget the whole thing, “I don’t know,” she admitted.

“Do you want to be with him?” (the question was simple.)

“I…He…He’s _Captain America,”_ (the answer, not so much.)

Coulson chuckled, “I think you might have mentioned that already,” he told her, amusement coloring his voice, “But that doesn’t change the question, do you want to be with him?”

“I…” she hesitated, sorting through the emotions coursing through her and the thoughts rolling around in her head, “Yes,” she breathed, “I want to be with him,” she turned to pace back the other way and sighed, “We’re not platonic,” she admitted next, “I would have felt that we were right away…but the fact that we’re romantic soulmates…” she trailed off, “I can’t be with him and keep secrets from him. I can’t…I won’t do that to him or to me.”

Sighing, Coulson gave a hum of acknowledgement. Skye knew he was more aware than most of what the consequences of keeping secrets from your soulmate were, “Well at least we know how to find him once we figure out what to do,” he joked lightly.

Skye gave a half laugh in reply, “There’s that,” she agreed.

“Look, Skye,” he sighed, “Let me think about this for a while alright? I'll talk it through with May; we’ll work this out, I promise,” she could practically hear him beginning to pace where he was, (a habit she’d picked up from him, obviously) “I wish I could tell you to just go to him and tell him everything—“

“But you can’t,” Skye acknowledged, “I know, I get it,” a knock on her office door brought her back around to spot Angel (one of the first Inhumans Skye had helped to bring in nearly a year ago) hovering in the doorway, “Just a second,” she told Coulson, “What’s up?” she then spoke to Angel.

She offered Skye an apologetic tilt of her lips, “We’ve got some more information about that telekinetic we’ve been looking for,” she informed Skye.

Immediately Skye’s brain switched back to work mode, “I’ll be there in a second,” she thanked Angel and waited until the red head was walking away before returning to her call with Coulson, “Hey,” she let him know she was back, “Sorry, some stuff has just come up with that Inhuman we’ve been trying to track down for a few days now.”

“The telekinetic?” Coulson inquired.

“Yeah,” she sighed, “He’s been all over New York, but he’s pretty good at remaining unseen by our people when he wants to be,” she shrugged, “He’s not causing any problems other than using his abilities to con a few unsuspecting people out of their money for a 'magic trick', but still, we’d like to talk with him, make sure he knows the rules and stuff.”

Coulson hummed, “Alright, I’ll let you go deal with that then,” he paused, “And Skye,” he caught her attention before she could hang up, “We’ll figure it out.”

Taking a deep breath, she held it for a long minute before letting it out slowly, “I hope so,” she returned, “Enjoy your vacation sir,” she offered.

“I am,” Coulson’s small smile could be heard through the phone, “Take a few minutes to relax too Skye, you’ve earned them.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” she smiled too, “Talk to you later?”

“Yeah,” he agreed, “Later.”

Skye hung up the phone and stared at it for a second before taking one last deep breath and slipping it into her pocket; she had work to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there you have it! Let me know what you think in the comments below or even just drop a kudos, it just takes a second!  
> Thank you for reading!


	3. Coulson Makes a Call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coulson makes a call and requests a favor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The website was down for a while otherwise this would have been up much sooner! Thanks to everyone who is sticking with me, hope you enjoy this chapter!

“Who are you and how did you get this number?” Fury’s gruff voice was something Coulson could honestly say he never thought he’d miss. But sometimes (like right now) it was enough to make him long for the good old days when he’d been nothing but a good little soldier following Fury’s barked orders.

“Nice to hear from you too, sir,” Coulson rolled his eyes and shook his head, giving May an amused look. Her lips twitched before she glanced back down at the book she was reading; at least she was allowing that small sign of progress between them (he hadn't been entirely certain he'd even get that much).

There was a short pause on the other end of the phone before Fury spoke again, “Coulson,” he didn’t sound surprised, exactly, but intrigued, “How _did_ you get this number?”

“I know a guy,” he answered nonchalantly with a shrug, “got a minute?”

“Is this _guy_ a _she_ who goes by the last name of Hill?” Fury sounded like he was looking right at the owner of said last name.

Coulson’s lips twitched this time, “A good spy never reveals his source,” he stated (plus he was fairly certain Maria would try to kill him if he spilled the beans), “So, about that minute?”

“Yeah, yeah, Coulson, what do you need?”

“I need a lot of things Nick,” he started, “But mostly for today, I just need to ask for a favor.”

A short pause followed before Fury sighed sarcastically, “Oh, is that all?” 

“Uh-huh,” Phil absently began to fiddle with a pen from the table he was leaning against.

“And what, dare I ask, does this so-called _favor_ entail?” Fury sounded as if he didn’t really want to know. But they both knew he owed Coulson after the whole bringing him back to life without his permission thing, so…

“I need you to inform the Avengers that I am still alive and that SHIELD still exists,” he just came right out and said it in the plainest words possible.

The silence that followed was expected. It went on long enough, however, that May looked up from her book again to watch on curiously. Phil offered her a small smile as he waited patiently for the explosion he knew was to come.

“Why?” Fury’s response was…not the explosion he’d expected. Huh.

Silently humming curiously to himself, Coulson shifted so his legs were crossed in front of him as he leaned back on the table a little more, “A lot of reasons,” he started to explain, but Fury cut him off.

“Such as?” and _there_ was the irritation.

Feeling a little more on kilter now that Fury was actually acting his part the way he'd expected, Phil pointedly continued speaking as if he hadn’t been interrupted, “First and foremost, I believe that both SHIELD and the Avengers would be far more profitable if the Avengers were aware of our existence. If they knew we were a resource they could use and vice versa a lot more could be done to protect people. It would be far more beneficial to us both rather than narrowly crossing paths as we have been over the last few years.”

Phil went on to list a dozen more reasons to read the Avengers in fully on the status of SHIELD. He provided points and sub points and argument he knew even the best lawyer would struggle to refute. When he finally came to a stop nearly twenty minutes later he took a silent, deep breath and waited. Fury had remained quiet the entire time he'd ranted, (almost too quiet, it always made him nervous when Fury was silent for too long), clearly refraining from voicing his own opinions until Coulson was finished.

“Why now?” the former director finally inquired, sounding exasperated for some reason Coulson didn't care to figure out.

This was the part Phil didn't quite know how to approach. How much did he tell Fury and how much did he keep private between him and Skye?

“Spit it out Cheese,” Fury interrupted his thoughts, using the nickname he'd inexplicably called Coulson for years, “Stop tryin’ to think of a way to spin your reasons and just give 'em to me.”

Fair enough. “Agent Skye is Rogers’ soulmate,” he stated as bluntly as possible without giving too much of Skye's personal information away.

Fury was silent for a moment as he processed this, “And knowing Agent Skye she has decided not to be with Rogers unless she can share all her secrets with him,” there was no mocking in the voice, just resignation. Coulson knew better than most how little stock Fury put in romantic soulmates, the man had long since shoved his own soulmate (the previous mentioned she with the last name of Hill) into a platonic box and thrown away the key to keep their bond from forming.

Something had been changing between Maria and Nick over the last few years that told Coulson that Fury may have started to change his mind on that front however. But Fury’s feelings aside, Coulson was one of the few who recognized how impressed Fury was with Skye. She’d come a long way in a short amount of time, and she’d done a lot with very little. If there was anyone in SHIELD Fury might be willing to bend for (beside Coulson himself) it was likely to be Skye. Of course it helped that Skye didn’t seem to be bothered by or scared of Fury either; Fury had always respected people who could look him in the eye while he was lecturing and ranting and still remain visibly unaffected. 

“She doesn’t want to jeopardize their bond by keeping secrets from him,” Coulson confirmed, “I believe it says a lot about her loyalty to SHIELD that she was willing to walk away from him after their first meeting. You know how hard it can be to be separated from your soulmate after the first few days of meeting them.”

“I think it says more about her loyalty to _you_ than to SHIELD, but that is neither here nor there, all things considered,” Fury grumbled with exasperation, “Knowing Rogers he’s probably going out of his mind trying to track Skye down.”

“He won’t find her,” Coulson stated, absolutely certain, “Not even with Stark helping him; Skye’s one of our best, she won’t be found unless she wants to be.”

“No,” Fury agreed easily enough.

Coulson waited a moment before voicing his thoughts, his eyes watching his own soulmate thoughtfully, “The Avengers deserve to know the truth,” he decided, resolve making him straighten his spine, “And ultimately it is up to me, as Director, whether or not to share it with them,” May looked up at him again, this time with an approving tilt to her lips (the one that always made him feel a little more confident about his choices), “I would like your backing in this, but I don’t need it.”

The long silence that followed his announcement was tense before a muffled conversation, presumably with Hill, was heard. A moment later Fury returned to the phone, “Alright,” he surrendered with no inflection to tell Coulson whether he agreed with the decision or not.

This time it was Coulson’s turn to sigh, “Spit it out Nick,” he used Fury’s previous words against him, “You think it’s a mistake.”

“I think it could absolutely backfire and blow up in your face,” Fury countered, “I think you’re doing this for Skye, not for SHIELD.”

“While there might be a little piece of truth to that,” he admitted, and it was true, Skye was important to him, more important than just about anyone or anything, “I do think it is in SHIELD’s best interest to inform the Avengers of our continued active presence. You have started including SHIELD with the support staff at the new Avengers facility, but you still haven’t informed the team of just how deep and wide spread their back up goes. The Avengers have been using our intelligence for the last few years, it’s time they know where the intel is coming from. What good does Theta Protocol do us if they don’t know what it is they'll be walking into?”

Fury sighed, “Look Phil,” he broke his way into Coulson’s reasoning, “I see your point, that’s not the problem,” Coulson could practically feel the frustration radiating off the other man through the phone, “I just want to make sure you are making the best decision for yourself and for SHIELD, regardless of what effects it has on Agent Skye.”

“She’s the only family I have,” he pulled right at the root of the problem.

“And you’re willing to watch everything you've worked for potentially blow up in your face for her?” it was a stupid question because they’d both realized by this point that the answer was obviously yes.

Phil shrugged and nodded his head thoughtfully, “Things in the past that have been good for Skye have tended to be good for me and SHIELD,” he shared, “What if her being Rogers’ soulmate is the Universe trying to pull SHIELD and the Avengers back together?”

“You know I never believed in that Universe crap,” Fury retorted, “But fine, I see your point.”

“Skye has earned the right to be with her soulmate,” Coulson stated clear as day, well and truly done with this conversation, “She’s done more for SHIELD than almost anyone has since it was founded.”

Fury made a grunting sound of ascent, “I get it,” he grunted, “I’m in Romania right now, but Hill and I were going to fly back to New York for Christmas anyway. Lewis can be pushy about things sometimes,” the last part was grumbled with a bit of amusement, “And I suppose I do still owe the Avengers a gift this year.”

Coulson smirked, “Now imagine how pushy Darcy would be if she found out you could have helped Rogers find his soulmate, but you decided not to.”

The pause that followed was nearly enough to make Coulson laugh, “You should have led with that argument,” Fury passively commented.

“Scared of the little intern?” Coulson teased, he knew better than most that that ‘little intern’ was somewhat of a genius. The determination and backbone that allowed her to wrangle the Avengers so easily was, frankly put, _terrifying_ ; even, apparently, to the former Director of SHIELD.

“Scared isn’t the right word,” Fury disagreed, “Cautious would be better. The girl has each of the Avengers wrapped around her little finger and one look from her could end the world as we know it.”

It was more dramatic than Coulson was used to, but the statement was probably true enough, “Noted; next time I’ll lead with ‘Darcy Lewis will be my first phone call if you don’t do as I say.’”

Fury chuckled, “I’ll call you once I’ve finished briefing them, maybe before, depending on how much proof of life they need.”

“Sounds good,” he agreed, “And Nick,” he called just before the other man could hang up, “Thank you.”

There was a grunt of acknowledgement before the phone clicked off. Coulson sighed and set the phone down on the table. He crossed his metal hand over his chest as his other free hand rose to rub over his face with a sigh, “This is the right decision right?” he needed May’s voice of reason (he _always_ needed May’s voice of reason, sometimes she knew him better than he knew himself) to truly justify his choice once and for all.

He heard her sigh and move around and suddenly she was pressed against his front, “It’s the best one you could make considering the circumstances,” she murmured, her lips pressing a light kiss to his jaw.

Coulson relaxed into her touch, “It will work out,” he said, more to see if she would disagree with him than anything else.

“One way or another,” May agreed with another kiss to his jaw, this one further back, “We’ll just make sure we’re there to pick up the pieces if it goes south. Skye’s a strong girl,” she pulled back to meet his eyes, “Whatever happens we’ll all make it through.”

He studied her face for a moment before nodding and ducking his head to take a real kiss, “Nothing we can do now but wait anyway,” he mumbled against her lips.

“Wonder how we can pass the time?” May’s lips were more than twitching into a smile now.

“I wonder,” he teased back, delving in to seal their lips together.

This. This was what he wanted for Skye. This love, and peace, and contentment. Everything he had right now, here with his soulmate, he wanted that for her.

But if Captain America hurt his girl, Coulson was going to ruin him; childhood hero or not.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think? Comment below and let me know! Comments and Kudos mean quicker updates!


	4. Fury Interrupts Your Meeting for an Important Announcement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fury has a few confessions to make and a long story to tell. Steve gets some answers, none of them are what he is expecting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is kind of a filler chapter that got out of hand. There is a lot of information in here that people may already know, but Steve and the Avengers didn't. Hope you enjoy it!

“Moping’s never really been a good look for you Rogers,” Sam commented as he dropped down in the conference table seat next to Steve’s.

Dragging his eyes up from the one picture Tony had managed to find of his soulmate ( _one!_ Even Bucky had more pictures of him floating around while he’d been on the run; and this one wasn’t even clear or in color) Steve glanced over at his friend, “Not much else I can do,” he muttered.

Sam rolled his eyes, “Sure there is, you’re Captain America, finding your soulmate should be simple enough,” he waved his hand around, “I figure as a last resort you could take to the internet and the media asking for her to come forward,” he smirked, “It could be like every Cinderella story ever written,” a thoughtful laugh escaped him as he visibly got lost in the scenario he’d created.

“She ran away from me Sam,” Steve shook his head, amused by the idea but recognizing it as impractical (with his luck that would be when all the crazy stalkers came out of the woodwork), “I doubt she’ll be coming back.”

“You said she was happy to see you at first,” Sam reminded him, “Maybe figuring out you were Captain America just threw her off a little. Maybe even now she’s regretting running away—“

“And what, she doesn’t know how to find me again?” Steve scoffed, “I live in the largest Tower in New York, I’m an Avenger; there are few people alive who don’t know where to find me.”

Sam sighed, “You live in a Tower full of the most _imposing_ people on the planet. _I_ was terrified to come see you and I _knew_ you.”

“I wouldn’t go as far as to say we’re _imposing,”_ Tony’s voice spoke up from the conference room door. Steve whipped around to greet the mechanic, eyes wide and hopeful, but Tony waved his excitement away with a shake of his head, “Slow your roll Cap,” he frowned, looking incredibly put out, “I still haven’t tracked her down yet.”

Steve felt his shoulders slump as he dropped back into the surprisingly comfortable chair he was currently occupying, “How is that even possible?” he demanded, his voice revealing his weariness, “Even Bucky was easier to catch a glimpse of and he was trained to stay away from cameras.”

Tony nodded as he plopped into a chair on the other side of the long oval table, “Which may tell us something about this girl and whatever super-spy training she has,” he commented meeting Steve’s eyes with his own and a shrug, “But really, I think it just tells us that the girl is really good with a computer.”

Eyebrows furrowing with confusion, Steve didn’t even look away when Clint, Natasha, Wanda and Pietro all walked in and took their seats, “You think she’s a hacker?” he clarified.

Fingers fiddling with some device or another in his hands Tony hummed his agreement, “A skilled one too,” he added, “On the day you met her three minutes of camera footage went missing from every camera in a mile radius and all the social media pics that were taken were mysteriously pixilated or blurred in different places,” he glanced up and smirked, actually seeming impressed, “The phenomenon stretches over the city for the next hour, random bits of footage go missing. If I had to guess she has the internet set up to scrub her picture if it ever appears anywhere she doesn’t want it,” he nodded and pointed at the black and white photo Steve had been staring at earlier, “The only reason I got that was because the camera that shot it was an amateur camera with a close circuit feed, which means it couldn’t be hacked.”

Thor, Jane and Bruce filed in then but Steve still paid them no mind, “Then how did you—“

“I have my ways,” Tony waved his question off, “Anyway, the point is, I’m not sold on the super-spy bit yet, but on the super-hacker thing? I’d pretty much be willing to say it was a given.”

Bucky and Darcy appeared then, separating once Bucky reached the chair next to Steve so Darcy could move to the front of the room (this was her meeting after all). Rhodey sauntered in last with Pepper at his side and they claimed the seats on either side of Tony.  Steve just sat in silence mulling this new information over. So his soulmate was a hacker? A hacker who didn’t want to be found, it seemed like, but why? Was that why she needed him? And did she need him because she was actually in danger or was it simply for the same reason he needed her-to combat the nearly overwhelming loneliness he felt daily and to fill the soulmate-shaped hole in his heart?

Darcy rapped her knuckles twice on the conference table, “I’m sure you are all wondering why I’ve summoned you here today,” she stared with a grin.  Everyone turned to face her now the meeting had officially started, but as she opened her mouth to go on, the conference room door opened once more.

“I hear you’re looking for your soulmate Rogers,” Fury's familiar voice told him that the former SHIELD director had just arrived long before Steve turned to see for himself.

“I am,” he didn’t bother denying it as he looked over at the door to watch Fury and Hill slink into the room as if they owned the place.

Tony sputtered, “How did you know that?” he demanded, “Hill hasn’t been in the Tower since Thanksgiving! Is someone else spying on us for you?” he glanced around the table suspiciously before locking eyes with Natasha, “It was you, wasn’t it?”

Natasha simply arched an elegant eyebrow and kept her features bland, “I’m sure Nick has his sources, but I am not one of them.”

“No, she’s not,” Fury confirmed moving around the room until he and Hill stood next to Darcy who was watching him with an unimpressed expression, (everyone knew not to interrupt one of Darcy’s meetings, she knew how to make her punishments hurt when she wanted it to; apparently Fury hadn’t received that memo) “I have other people who tell me things Stark.”

Steve decided to rein the conversation back in before Tony started one of his I-love-to-argue-with-Fury-because-it-pisses-him-off-and-I-think-that’s-hilarious rants, “Is there something in particular we can do to help you, sir?” he prodded the former SHIELD director.  

Fury frowned once more at Tony before looking over at Hill who gave him a small supportive nod.  Sighing, Fury opened his jacket to pull out a file, he fiddled with it for a second before tossing it down the table. It slid several feet until it came to a stop in front of Steve, appearing completely innocent.

Steve slowly leaned forward with a frown and reached out to pull the folder closer, “What’s this?” he asked as he fingered the file, cautiously moving to open it.

“Her name is Skye,” Fury stated clearly as Steve lifted the file edge to reveal a crystal clear picture (in color) of his soulmate, “And she is an Agent of SHIELD.”

Even though he sensed the immediate tenseness of everyone in the room at Fury’s words, Steve couldn’t pull his eyes away from his soulmate’s face, “Skye,” he repeated dumbly, his fingers moving to look underneath the picture at the half dozen or so other images of his soulmate that were available. Scanning over all of them his eyes caught on the insignia at the top of one of the papers behind the photos. Moving the pictures to the side for a moment he stared down at the file in front of him with surprise, “SHIELD?” he echoed, finally tearing his eyes away to look up at Fury.

“SHIELD is gone,” Bucky stated, his voice tense.

Fury glanced at him briefly before shaking his head, “Not as gone as the world thinks it is,” he denied, “After the HYDRA fiasco, as you all know, there were SHIELD agents all over that were being detained and interrogated,” he gave a nod to Tony reminding them all of how Tony had stepped in to protect dozens of good SHIELD agents that had remained after DC, “However, at the same time, SHIELD bases and safe-houses all over the world were being raided by HYDRA. We were losing hundreds of good agents and we needed someone who could help round up the information and technology that SHIELD had that the rest of the world wasn’t ready for. We also needed a place for SHIELD agents to go where they could be safe and could continue to serve.”

“So what,” Tony straightened in his seat, “You’re saying SHIELD still exists?” he glanced around the table, his eyes locking with Clint and then with Natasha before looking back at Fury, “Why didn’t any of us know about this?”

The two former SHIELD agents looked as if they wanted to ask the same question.  Fury looked over at Hill briefly before looking back at Tony, “Yes, SHIELD still exists, and you didn’t know because you didn’t need to know.”

“I don’t think that was your choice to make!” Tony snapped, looking as if he truly could not understand what was running through Fury’s head, “We need to know who our allies are out there,” he gestured broadly to the large window wall behind him that revealed the New York skyline, “and SHIELD _probably_ could have used a little back up every now and then too! As it is they are operating with no official authority—“

“The president knows SHIELD still exists,” Fury interrupted, “and SHIELD needed to be kept a secret for the safety of the agents who continue to work there.”

Steve shook his head as the two continued to argue and glanced down at the file in front of him again to greedily read everything he’d been provided about his soulmate (Skye, her name was _Skye_ ). His eyes tracked across the typical SHIELD agent file before they locked on a name typed neatly in the corner of the page. His whole body froze as he read the name again and again.

“Coulson?” he read the last name out loud, bringing the whole room to a halt as they turned to look at him. He slowly brought his eyes up from the file to stare at Fury, “Why does it say that Agent Coulson was Skye’s recruiter in 2013… a year _after_ he died in the Battle of New York?”

Almost as one, every head in the room turned to look at Fury, who seemed wholly unsurprised, “Because Coulson recruited Skye in 2013, a year after he died in the Battle of New York,” he answered simply.

“What?” Clint exclaimed, “What does that even _mean_? How is that possible?”

Fury shifted a little in place, the only sign that he was even remotely uncomfortable, “It was made possible as a result of the TAHITI Project,” he explained (which obviously didn’t mean anything to anyone else if their confused and irritated expressions were anything to go by). He paused long enough to take a deep breath and let it out slowly, “Look, I’ve kept a lot of secrets from you over the years—“

“ _No_ ,” Tony gasped exaggeratedly, “ _Really_?!”

Pointedly ignoring Tony’s sarcasm Fury forged on, “ _However_ , this secret is probably the biggest,” his fingers reached out to rest on the edge of the table, “After the Battle, where Coulson _did_ , in fact, die,” he pulled his eyes from where they were locked on the table to look around at the Avengers, “I used the TAHITI project to bring him back.”

Silence reined for a moment before Natasha spoke up, her voice tense, “What do you mean, _bring him back_?”

“Exactly what it sounds like,” Fury answered her, “The TAHITI project was only ever to be used in the event of a fallen Avenger,” he explained, “The trials had been questionable at best and the project was shut down at Coulson’s request years ago. But when Coulson died,” he tapped his fingers once, “I couldn’t lose such a good agent, and as far as I was concerned Coulson was just as much an Avenger as any one of you,” he glanced around the table, daring anyone to disagree.

They didn’t.

“TAHITI used an alien drug, known as GH-325, to heal injuries and even bring people back from the dead. The side effects, however, tended to make the patients lose their minds. They’d begin carving circles and lines that would hold no pattern or meaning and they would become obsessed with creating the symbols. Most of them became obsessed to the point of self-harm if they were denied the ability to carve on something else.  We noticed a marked difference in the patients who received the treatment knowingly and those who were unaware of what had been done to treat them, so it was necessary to wipe Coulson’s memory of the TAHITI project and of receiving the GH-325 treatment.”

Steve could feel Bucky stiffening next to him at the mention of wiping another man’s memory, but he wasn't the only one at the table who appeared uncomfortable with the information. Tony was looking increasingly pale and furious while Natasha and Clint’s expressions grew more and more blank; even Thor's expression was thuderous. Steve hadn’t been especially close to Coulson, not by any stretch of the imagination, but he had respected the man and he understood more than most the importance he’d played in the creation and stabilization of the Avengers.

“Wipe his memory?” Darcy exclaimed, voicing the collective thoughts the team were all sharing, “Are you _out_ of your _mind_?” she actually had the courage to slap Fury across the face, the resounding CRACK echoing across the silent room, “What is _wrong with you_?! Son-of-Coul did _not_ deserve to have his _memory wiped_ when he’d done nothing but be a good and loyal _drone_ for you and your organization _his whole life_!”

Bucky was on his feet and moving to Darcy’s side in an instant. He pulled her back towards him protectively, locking eyes with Fury and daring him to retaliate. Fury didn’t seem to have any intention of retaliating however, though he did reach up to rub at his jaw, “Believe me, Lewis, Coulson made his opinion of what was done to him crystal clear,” he grumbled. He looked over at Hill who was smirking at Fury, seemingly amused by Darcy’s outburst, “The word stupid was used more than once.”

Clint snorted in amusement. When the sound earned him a questioning look from some of those who hadn't met the man in question, he explained with a roll of his eyes, “It’s his favorite word when he gets going. You definitely _know_ you screwed up if he uses the word 'stupid' more than once,” turning then to Fury his voice hardened, “So Coulson is alive?” he checked, “And he knows what you did to him?”

“Yes, on both accounts,” Fury replied, “He wanted to let you and Natasha know about his recovery right away, but I knew the two of you would start asking questions Coulson wouldn’t be able to answer. Those questions, in turn, would have led to a breakdown in his memory-wipe that no one could afford. The breakdown eventually came anyway, but he was able to operate normally for a while until he remembered.”

“How did he remember?” Natasha inquired softly, obviously still reining in whatever emotional response she was having to the news.

Fury glanced at Maria who sighed and stepped forward, “We created a specialized team for Coulson to command approximately five years ago made up of Doctors Leopold Fitz and Jemma Simmons, Agent Melinda May and Agent Grant Ward,” the names were unfamiliar to Steve but from the expressions on Clint and Natasha’s faces they were familiar to them.

“You brought _The Calvary_ out of retirement?” Natasha asked.

Almost simultaneously Clint spoke, “Coulson let you put _Ward_ on his team? He knows neither Natasha nor I trusted him.”

This earned Maria an indecipherable look from Fury that she pointedly ignored, “Coulson can be persuasive when he wants to be,” she explained to Natasha instead before finally acknowledging Clint's comment, “And Ward was the best SHIELD had to offer after the two of you, who we couldn’t give him for obvious reasons,” falling silent she then watched as Darcy took Bucky’s arm and dragged him back to his original seat.

Glaring at Maria, Darcy waited until Bucky was seated before dropping down onto his lap. Maria rolled her eyes (the two of them were friends, but Steve knew that this was going to do some damage, though he wasn’t sure why Darcy was so upset about Coulson, he hadn’t known the two of them even knew each other), “However, Coulson didn’t feel his team was complete, so after working with Skye for a case, he brought her on as a consultant.”

“What case?” Steve heard himself ask. He blinked when both Fury and Hill turned to look at him, but didn’t look away or reveal that he hadn’t actually meant to voice his question.

Hill shared a look with Fury before beginning an explanation that involved a year’s worth of cases involving a group known as Centipede (why couldn’t people just leave the super-soldier-serum alone?), a person known as the Clairvoyant (who thankfully could _not_ read minds or the future, but was instead a HYDRA head with higher-than-most SHIELD security clearance), and Coulson being kidnapped (and subsequently made to remember what had happened to him).

This was followed with the news that Skye had been shot, which nearly led to the first panic attack Steve had ever suffered since receiving the serum. Fortunately, despite the years apart, Bucky still knew all the signs and managed to head him off. Taking a breath, Steve refocused on Fury's words just in time to hear about Skye receiving the GH-325 (he’d been terrified for her at this point, relieved that it worked and wary of the consequences), the betrayal of Ward (which brought a round of glaring and I-told-you-so’s from Clint), the kidnapping and subsequent rescue of Skye (apparently this Ward guy had an obsession with his soulmate) and the great HYDRA reveal.

“Coulson and his team became the cleanup crew who took care of the bad guys who escaped the Fridge and the team responsible for re-collecting the weapons and artifacts that the public should not have access to,” Hill continued, “They stationed themselves in an old SSR base codename the Playground, one of Agent Carter’s favorites, and went about gathering and rescuing SHIELD agents. It was their intel that led us to dozens of the HYDRA bases your team has raided, including the base in Sokovia where Loki’s scepter was being held.”

There was silence in the room for a moment as the team tried to process all of what they’d just heard, “Why do I get the feeling that’s not everything?” Tony commented. 

Fury sighed resignedly, “Because it’s not,” he answered simply, “With his new awareness of TAHITI and his resurfacing memories, Coulson found himself becoming more like the patients who had participated in the TAHITI project. He began carving,” he elaborated, “Circles and lines that reportedly made no sense. Skye acted as his code breaker and attempted to figure out what the writing meant, only to discover weeks later that it was a map.”

“A map to where?” Sam asked first, obviously voicing the question on everyone’s minds.

“An ancient city,” Hill stated, “Coulson began losing his mind as much as the other patients had, carving all the time and with Skye’s help he uncovered several artifacts that had the same carvings on them. He also found himself a murderer who was carving the symbols into people’s bodies. He and his team tracked the murderer down,” there was obviously a part of the story missing here, “and found him about to kill another previous TAHITI patient. The patient had been creating the lines and circles too, but his took on a 3D pattern, forming the lines and circles into a 3D map of an ancient city.”

Hill then went on to describe Simmons’ time as a HYDRA spy (which for some reason caused Clint to pale and Natasha to look at him with barely concealed concern) working for Whitehall (who apparently was a not-so-dead original head of HYDRA), her work with a device known as an Obelisk or Diviner, the original 0-8-4 (the numbers seemed to mean something to Clint, Natasha and Tony, but didn’t ring any bells for Steve or anyone else) and the following rescue of Simmons by one Agent Bobbi Morse (whose name made Clint flinch and stiffen—he was acting very odd about all of this. Steve made a mental note to make sure Clint was alright after things settled down) who was apparently previously married to one of the newer SHIELD agents Lance Hunter (whose name made Clint relax once more with a knowing smirk).

She told them of the search for the city and its eventual discovery in San Juan, including, in her tale, the pains Ward and Skye’s father (who was apparently insane and a murderer) had gone through to bring Skye there.

“Despite Coulson’s warnings, Skye made her way into the temple after Raina, operating under the mistaken assumption that whatever the Obelisk did, it would result in global catastrophe. Coulson enacted Theta Protocol around this time,” Hill glanced over at Fury before looking around the table and locking eyes with Steve, “Theta Protocol, at its most basic, is code for bring in the Avengers when everything goes FUBAR,” she explained, “If Coulson and his team failed,  your team would have been notified immediately to handle the situation.”

“Idiot,” Tony grunted, “He should have called us in for backup long before then,” he stated defensively when all eyes turned to him, “Why risk his life and the lives of his team when he could have had our help?”

Seeing Tony’s point Steve gave a small nod, “I’m guessing since we never got that call that everyone made it out alright?” he turned back to Hill, pointedly making his displeasure known.

Hill swallowed and nodded once, “Everyone made it out in one piece,” she carefully worded her answer a little differently, “Skye, Raina and Trip, however, were a little…different afterwards.”

“Different?” Steve sat up, his chest squeezing with concern, “Different how?”

Not one to mince words, Fury answered the question, “They went through a form of metamorphosis known, apparently, as Terrigenesis.”

“Terri-whatsit?” Tony echoed, his hand waving around and his eyebrows furrowing.

“Terrigenesis,” Fury corrected with a narrowed eyed look at Tony that told them all that he knew Tony had heard him right the first time, “SHIELD had no records of anything by that name, nor any information about what it was until a few days after San Juan when Lady Sif came back to Earth to track down a Kree by the name of Vin Tak,” Fury paused then, waiting for the reaction he seemed to know he would receive from Thor.

“What’s a—“ Tony started but Thor interrupted when he rose to his feet, his expression one of dark concern, “What business have the Kree with Midgard?” he demanded to know, “And why did Lady Sif not tell me of her visit before?”

Fury moved so his hand was resting on the table again, “Lady Sif has visited Earth a few times now, on both occasions she worked with Coulson’s team to accomplish her mission, the first involving a woman named Lorelei,” Thor’s face grew red with a blush Steve had never seen before, “the second involving the Kree named Vin Tak. She and Vin Tak had a battle here,” Hill, who had been fiddling with her phone a moment before, flicked an image onto the large screen behind them to portray a dark haired woman fighting with a man who appeared equally skilled in combat. A moment later Sif (Steve guessed that was the woman’s name) was hit by the small hammer like object Vin Tak was carrying and was sent flying.

“The weapon Vin Tak used," Hill zoomed in the small hammer as she picked up the story where Fury left off, "took away Sif’s memory of her mission and even who she was. Coulson and his team helped her to remember her identity and her mission. As it turned out, she had been sent after the Kree in search of answers to the same questions you have just asked Thor,” she turned to look at the blonde god, “Vin Tak openly shared his mission with SHIELD and Sif, informing them that he had been sent here to find Kava. Kava, apparently, was the name of the ancient city in San Juan.”

“What business had he there?” Thor rumbled.

Hill shifted a little to switch off the screen before answering, (Steve got the sensed her answer was not going to go over well with Thor) “Kava, as it turns out, was an ancient Kree city—“

“Impossible!” Thor declared indignantly, “The Kree have never before stepped foot on Midgard! Asgard would not have allowed it.”

Fury stepped in, seemingly unconcerned with Thor's wrath , “From what I understand the Kree were in the middle of a great war several thousand years ago; long _before_ the Asgard or the Frost Giants came here,” he started to explain, “They came to Earth, as well as dozens of other worlds, to conduct experiments on the populations they found in an attempt to create living weapons to help win their war. The war ended before their experiments could yield any fruit and the Kree left Earth, leaving behind six stones known to the Kree worshipers as Diviners, or, what we know as  Obelisks.  These Diviners were said to only be usable by those the Kree experimented on. When it was taken to the temple in Kava by Raina, it opened to reveal the terragin crystals inside. These released a mist that triggered the Kree gene that had lain dormant in Skye, Trip and Raina until that time.”

“They were decedents from the humans the Kree had first experimented on,” Hill picked up, “and with their gene activated they went through Terrigenesis, transforming their bodies from normal humans into something else. They call themselves Inhumans—“

“They?” Tony echoed.

“They,” Hill repeated with a roll of her eyes at being interrupted, “The Terrigenesis caused Raina to be covered in thorns and spikes like a porcupine, while Trip was made invisible and Skye…” Hill turned to look at Steve specifically, “Skye was given seismic abilities.”

Steve felt his lips part in surprise, “Seismic…” he started but trailed off, his mind whirling and turning to process what he’d just been told.

“So wait,” Clint spoke up, “Are you saying Steve’s soulmate is an Enhanced?”

Fury shook his head, “No,” he denied immediately, “Enhanced are given their abilities by unnatural phenomena, such as HYDRA experimentation,” he inclined his head towards the twins and then to Steve and Bucky, “Inhumans are the result of years of mutations and evolution that result in genes that remain dormant until the terrigen crystals activate them. The Inhumans are very specific about the difference," Fury himself sounded annoyed to have to make the difference clear at all.

“But she has superpowers?” Clint clarified.

Hill and Fury shared a look that gave away their amused exasperation, “Yes,” Hill agreed, “You could say that.”

“What does all of this have to do with the Kree and his mission to find Kava?” Thor brought them back to his original question.

“He came here to destroy Kava and to hunt down and kill any Inhumans who had gone through the mists,” Fury answered, “According to Coulson, he believed that the Inhumans were uncontrollable weapons who must be put down. They were unnatural and an abomination.”

Steve felt himself growing tenser with every word, his soulmate was not an _abomination_! He was about to say so when Fury continued on. “Coulson and May disagreed, and they and their team took down Vin Tak and convinced Lady Sif to leave Skye and Trip alone.  Lady Sif took Vin Tak and returned him to his world with a warning for us that Asgard would not be able to step in and help with the Inhuman problem if they did not accept her help before she left. Coulson and May told her that SHIELD could handle it and Lady Sif returned to Asgard.”

A feeling of relief surged through Steve at the knowledge that his soulmate was thankfully _not_ being hunted by an alien race anymore. He glanced down the table at Thor to find him frowning in thought, “Vin Tak and the Lady Sif may have been correct,” his blue eyes moved to meet Steve’s, “Your people are not yet ready for—“

“With all due respect Thor,” Fury’s voice was firm and authoritative, “The decision has already been made, and it is one that has served us well over the last few years,” he squared his shoulders and met Thor’s eye carefully, “Do they pose a threat? Yes, undeniably, _however_ , as Coulson and his team soon discovered, Skye and Trip are not the first of their kind. Inhumans have been around for generations. Skye’s own mother is one of the oldest we know about. She was the reason and the method by which Whitehall was able to live for so long.”

Fury told them of the Inhuman community and the branch SHIELD group that had nearly started a war with the Inhumans. He explained how Coulson had led an attack on a SHIELD base that had been taken over by Skye’s mother that resulted in the death of Jaiying, the loss of Coulson’s hand (Tony looked almost too interested when Fury explained how Fitz and Simmons had created a new hand for Coulson), and the unintentional introduction of the terrigen crystals into the ecosystem.

“Over the last two years Inhumans have been popping up all over the globe,” Hill pulled up a map that revealed the increasing number of Inhumans, “But neither the news nor your team were made aware of it because Skye and her people were able to keep it quiet. Coulson and Skye revamped the Index Asset Evaluation and Intake protocols, renaming it all under the codename Welcome Wagon,” her lips pulled up in amusement at the codename, “and created a new division of SHIELD known as the Caterpillar Program.”

“Caterpillar?” Clint questioned.

“Like the butterfly,” Wanda responded softly, her eyes thoughtful.

Hill nodded, “Most likely,” she agreed, seeming uncertain of the origin of the codename herself, “Caterpillar brings in Inhumans and teaches them how to control and use their new abilities. It provides them with new identities when necessary and help with re-assimilation into everyday life. Those Inhumans and Enhanced who do not wish to follow the rules the Caterpillar programs set for them are watched carefully and should they turn out to be less than desirable citizens they are taken to the Fridge and kept there.”

“You’re imprisoning people without a trial?” Rhodey spoke up for the first time, his voice tense and revealing his concern.

“Where do you propose we get a jury of their peers to judge them fairly, Colonel?” Fury inquired, “And only the worst of them are locked up; murderers, stalkers, people who cause harm or severe property damage and who _refuse_ help. Fortunately there are very few of those. HYDRA has managed to find several agents who have gone through Terrigenesis and come out with dangerous powers. Those who survive an encounter with Quake and her team are given the option of revoking their allegiance to HYDRA, or being locked up. Most of them choose the lock up, those who don’t have a nice chat with one of Skye’s people who can sense lies to see where their true loyalty lay so we don’t have a repeat of the HYDRA fiasco.”

“Quake?” Bucky asked softly, his hand smoothing up and down Darcy’s side.

Hill nodded, “Skye’s codename when in the field is Quake,” she explained.

“And _her_ team?” Bucky pressed on.

“The Secret Warriors,” Hill supplied, “They are a team of Inhumans and Enhanced who take on the missions average SHIELD agents can’t. They are a more covert team of Avengers if you will, though many of them are nowhere near as trained as you all are.”

Tony lurched from his seat to go and stand in front of the map of Inhuman/Enhanced, “All of these people have…abilities?” he turned to Fury, his expression concerned.

Fury seemed to understand and he nodded, “Yes,” he confirmed, “But Skye and her people are the best at what they do. They bring them in, help them learn control and then let them go.”

“Are they registered somewhere?” the mechanic asked leading to an increase to the tenseness in the room, the topic of registering had been a frequent one in recent weeks. Ultron had really spooked Tony those few years ago; that he’d been able to go so far without consequences beyond the irritation from his friends terrified him. Ever since, he’d been looking for ways to make sure neither he, nor anyone else could repeat his mistake. Registering people who could do some serious damage like that had been his proposed solution to the problem.

Few members of the team agreed that that was the way to go, however, and each of them had taken the time to try and talk him down from making registering an issue. If he brought it up now and tried to force it on his soulmate, Steve wasn’t sure what he would do.

“No,” Fury answered calmly, “That was one of the things that that Skye and Coulson wanted to do differently with SHIELD this time around. They believe that registering them would do more harm than good. Their run in with the Inhumans in their sanctuary occurred while trying to talk them into registering. It only served to make them feel threatened. It was also made apparent that by registering them and listing their abilities, it left them open and vulnerable to people who would want to use them or attack them for what they are capable of.”

“But what if they try and use their abilities for evil?” Tony’s eyes sparked challengingly.

Hill stepped forward, “The ones who will use their abilities for evil are more likely to be the ones who won’t register,” she stated, “and while I agree that there are benefits to knowing who and what is out there…” she looked over at Fury and shrugged, “Skye and her team have it handled. If they let someone back into everyday society and they run around causing trouble her and her team go after them.”

“If you were to ask Skye or Coulson what SHIELD was,” Fury spoke up, “they would explain their belief that at its most basic SHIELD is intended to be the indestructible force that protects everyday people from the strange, the weird, the powerful and mystical. SHIELD’s agents protect people, the Secret Warriors handle what average SHIELD agents can’t and they in turn, hand over the missions they can’t handle to you as the Avengers. There are fail-safes in place already that do not involve registration.”

Tony didn’t seem completely satisfied with this answer, but he gave a small nod and let the argument go. Something told Steve that if he ever got the chance to introduce Skye to Tony she was going to be bombarded with all the questions Tony would never bother asking Hill or Fury.

Quiet fell over the room as Steve exchanged a look with his teammates, “Why did she run?” he finally asked.

“Because she is a good agent who knew that she didn’t have permission to discuss all of this information with you,” Fury answered promptly.

Hill rolled her eyes, “More than likely it has to do with the fact that everyone knows you can’t keep secrets from your soulmate and form a strong soulbond,” she added her own opinion, “And Skye has a lot of secrets that she would have been asked to keep from you. Coulson being alive, SHIELD’s continued existence, her own special abilities and her team,” she shook her head, “Honestly Skye is as close to filling the role of Assistant Director as Agent May is. She runs her own division here in Manhattan and she deals with HYDRA on a near daily basis, but she wouldn’t be able to tell you any of that because of her loyalty to SHIELD.”

“Or her loyalty to Coulson,” Fury huffed, “If you thought Coulson was close with and protective of the two of you,” he looked at Natasha and Clint, “You should see him with Skye. The two of them have made a family out of each other. And when she found out that you were her soulmate,” he turned his gaze to Steve, “She was upset enough to confide in Coulson who took the opportunity to call in the favor I owed him for bringing him back to life against his will.”

“And here we are,” Hill finished.

Silence reined in the room for several moments, Steve himself was lost in his thoughts trying to process everything he’d heard and learned today (his soulmate was basically a superhero!). It was Darcy who finally broke the silence (typical, it was usually a tossup between her and Tony as to who would break first), “So, any way we can get in contact with her? I think I speak for all of us when I say that we’d like to have Cap’s girl around for the holidays.”

Fury and Hill shared another look but before they could decide on a reply the Avenger’s Assemble alarm sounded. Immediately on alert, the Avengers all shared a look before they were on their feet, “Suit up,” Steve ordered, “JARVIS, situation report.”

“It appears to be a bunch of skeletal robots attacking Central Park,” JARIVS reported.

Steve nodded to himself and glanced over at his friend to find Bucky engaged in a short kiss with his soulmate, “Be back by four!” Darcy ordered, “Those kids at the hospital deserve the chance to meet their heroes!”

Noises of agreement sounded from his team and Steve gave Darcy an acknowledging nod. They’d do what they could and she knew it. Heaving a small sigh Steve closed his eyes to center himself before nodding to Fury and moving after his team.

Apparently Skye was going to have to wait a little while longer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think! Drop a comment below or send some Kudos! Thank you for reading!


	5. Skye Does Battle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After finally managing to track down the Inhuman that had been eluding her for the last few weeks, Skye finds herself in the middle of one of the most odd Avengers battles in history.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, wow. Can I just say how happy I am so many of you are enjoying this story? Apparently keeping Trip alive was the right move to make! (A lot of you seemed pleased with that anyway). I nearly cried when they killed him off, so to for my own sanity I created a headcannon where Trip didn't die, but was instead turned invisible (and was unable to turn himself visible again for a while after San Juan), the invisibility extended to his ability to make sound that anyone could hear or touch anything they could see. Basically he placed himself on a slightly different dimension that made it impossible for him to interact with his people in anyway for a while until he figured out how to control it. Anyway...
> 
> Here is the next chapter, there is some brief Skye/Steve interaction here, hope it doesn't disappoint!
> 
> Enjoy!

Rolling her eyes as the street performer managed to con yet another group of impressed passersby out of their money, Skye smiled to herself and folded her arms as she leant back against the alley wall behind her. She’d been watching this guy perform his little 'magic tricks' for the last hour; the thing was, however, that these weren’t your typical magic tricks. The twenty-something man with a showman’s grin was using his Inhuman telekinetic abilities to levitate and manipulate his tricks.

More than one giggling girl had offered him money to try and figure out how he was levitating things. He’d flirted and charmed them all, and Skye couldn’t decide whether to have a conversation about ethics with him or to just leave him be.

Angel had mentioned running into her soulmate a week or two ago in Central Park and how he was making money using his abilities to con people. Skye had set out to find the man, not liking the idea of anyone using their powers for wrongful manipulation like Angel had implied. But watching the man as he performed now she recognized that the conning was relatively harmless, sure people were giving him money for an attempt to figure out how he was performing his magic but everyone knew what they were getting into and no one was being coerced in anyway.

It _had_ taken her nearly the entire week to track the guy down though, so she figured she’d hang around for a while, enjoy the show, and then return to the Cocoon to encourage Angel to find him again.  She deserved to know that he wasn’t as crooked as she originally suspected, and maybe she could convince him to come back to the Cocoon with her. However, while his abilities could make him a good asset for her team, Skye wasn’t going to force him to take that path; she just wanted to give them both the opportunity to be happy together.

Just because Skye couldn’t be with her soulmate didn’t mean Angel had to stay away from her own.

Readjusting the collar of her black leather jacket, she shifted in place, before tugging on the hem of her sleeves to try and warm up her hands. Even with the dark-blue long-sleeved shirt she had on underneath the normally warm leather jacket she was still freezing.  The small flurries that had been falling for the last week and a half still hadn’t let up, making the ground cold and slushy and the very air she breathed chilly and icy.

Rubbing her hands together and stomping her combat boots on the pavement, she watched as the young man wrapped his current show up, contemplating whether she wanted to head back to the Cocoon yet. A small twinge in her chest at the idea of returning to the mostly empty base (save about ten others who were celebrating the holiday together) was enough to remind her that while she was freezing out here, going back to the Cocoon would only reinforce the loneliness the season always brought her.

Sighing internally, Skye settled in for another set, resting against the wall to watch the man set up again only to find him watching her. She blinked in surprise but didn’t look away. Slowly arching one eyebrow at him she watched him deliberate internally about what to do next. It took a minute but eventually the man seemed to come to a decision and set out in her direction.

She watched him draw nearer with an impassive expression, bracing herself for any sort of confrontation. Abruptly he came to a stop several feet away from her and frowned up at the sky. It took her a beat to decide if she wanted to play along with whatever trick he was pushing this time. But then she heard the bells. 

It was Christmas time, bells weren't exactly uncommon, so the jingling hadn't caught her attention until she realized, as he had, that the sound was coming from above her, rather than around her. Frowning herself, Skye pushed off the wall and moved forward to try and see what was making the noise, unintentionally mimicking the actions of the dozens of other New Yorkers on the street.

As she watched, small packages began to fall through the clouds above them. They looked to be rapped in Christmas colored wrapping paper, but Skye couldn't figure out where they were coming from or why. Slowly, through the low hanging clouds, larger, vaguely human-shaped objects began descending. 

Growing more concerned by the second, Skye glanced around at the civilians in the area to see if anyone else appeared to know what was going on. When none of them appeared to be in the know, she returned her suspicious gaze to the sky. As the humanoid objects fell closer and closer she startled to realize that they appeared to wearing elf uniforms and that their eyes were glowing a menacing red.

Heart skipping as she realized that this was probably nothing good, Skye tensed and opened her mouth to shout a warning to the civilians around her. Before her words could leave her lips, the elf-robots (at least she assumed that was what whatever Avenger villian-of-the-week was aiming for) spoke with metallic synchronicity, "Ho Ho Ho!" 

Almost instantly a loud explosion followed the eerie words. Instinctively ducking as debris fluttered and dropped around her, Skye flinched back against the wall she'd just come from. She jolted when another explosion went off and frantically searched for the cause. It took only a second more before she watched one of the Christmas-wrapped packages hit an apartment balcony several stories above her and explode instantly. 

More debris dropped, sending shrieking pedestrians scattering for cover. Her SHIELD training kicking in, Skye staggered to her feet. Her head whipped around and she locked gazes with the now panicked Inhuman. Forcing her way through the crowd that was rushing past her she managed to grab his arm before he could move.

“You’re telekinetic,” she stated loudly over the screaming crowds of people rushing all around them.

He stared at her, obviously a little in shock; dumbly he nodded, “How…how did you—“

“I’m Skye,” she squeezed his arm in an attempt to snap him out of it, “I’m an Agent of SHIELD and I have powers like you do,” her eyes flinched as another bomb went off somewhere down the street, but the rest of her remained forcibly calm. (She knew she’d been tempting fate when she’d decided to stick around) “And I’m going to need your help."

The man jerked, trying to step away from her even as people kept jostling their way into and around him, “Me?” he repeated nervously, swallowing tightly as his eyes scanned the packages drifting to the ground all around them, exploding one by one, “What? Why? I don't—“

Skye shoved her hand at one of the nearby packages that was about to make contact with a cluster of people. The package swooped and swerved several feet up, “I need to you to catch as many of the packages as you can,” she refocused on the man, “Hold them in place or toss them higher up in the air,  which ever method works for you, can you do that?”

The man was shaking his head, visibly starting to tremble, “I'm not—You can’t be—“

“Hey!” Skye snapped, shaking his arm to pull his wild eyes back to her, “Hey, you got a name?” 

“Vance,” he answered absently, “My name is Vance Astrovik,” his hand lifted to wrap around her wrists, as his eyes locked on something over her shoulder. She turned just in time to see a package come to an abrupt stop, hovering a mere foot over the heads of a random group of people, “Are you serious?” he turned to her, “You want me to…to…use my p-powers?”

She nodded, “Yes,” she stated firmly, “Catch the packages you can—“ a loud explosion nearby caused several screams all over, “and keep them from touching anything,” she ordered using her best commander voice, “can you do that for me?”

He shook for a second longer before taking a deep breath and squaring his shoulders, “Yeah,” he nodded, “Okay, yeah,” he seemed to be talking to himself at this point. He shook his hands and bobbed in place for a moment before raising his hands. Several packages down the street froze where they were and hovered at his command, “I can do that, I got this.”

Skye smiled a little at him to offer some reassurance, “Good,” she jerked her head in an abrupt nod, “Stay here and do what you can—“

“I need to go up,” he disagreed abruptly, his eyes searching around, “I can catch more the further up I am, I can see more too.”

Hesitating a moment to scan the street Skye nodded, “Alright,” she agreed, “I’ll toss up what I can, you get to the top of that building,” she pointed to the tall building across the street. Vance nodded and his eyes glowed a brilliant white for just a moment. He took one last breath and suddenly launched up from the ground and off in the direction of the roof she'd indicated. “Okay,” she muttered to herself, “Apparently he can fly too.”

She glanced around at the multiple bombs still drifting to the ground and took a moment to center herself. Turning just so, she blasted all of the packages in her vicinity with vibrations to keep them from the ground. Two of them exploded as they were rocked too much. A window imploded. A quick scan of the area told her nothing else was damaged, nor was anyone hurt from the falling glass. It was something at least.

“Everyone get inside!” Skye shouted then, pushing as much authority into her voice as she could muster, “Inside and get _down_!” she firmly ushered a group of people into the jewelry store behind her. She filled it to capacity before guiding the next group into the café next door. She paused long enough to toss the packages back up again. 

The elf-robots had begun swooping around when she wasn't looking, and one of them turned in mid-air to come zipping right at her.

"Ho, ho, ho," the creepy robot voice crowed as it charged her. Whipping fully around to face the elf-robot, Skye concentrated on sensing the vibrations of the machine. As it drew nearer, she finally located the frequency she knew instinctively would shred the machine to bits. It took hardly any effort at all to rip the elf-robot apart, sending its pieces scattering to the ground around her. 

Grinning triumphantly, Skye scanned the space above her looking for more of the elf-robots. Seeing two more she channeled her powers into ripping them apart.

While her concentration was on the robots, the bomb-packages slipped and a rapid succession of explosions rocked the streets.

“Where are the Avengers when you need them?” she grumbled to herself as she returned to herding the civilians around into nearby buildings. Every now and then she would pause and destroy a few elf-robots as they came her way; and as the bomb-packages would fall, she'd take a second to toss them up again. 

After a few times of tossing the bomb-packages up, they were all abruptly frozen in place. Thanking whatever deity did exist (Thor and Sif aside) for Vance, Skye redoubled her efforts with the civilians and finally manged to usher the last of the civilians on the street into a convenience store.

The elf-robots didn’t seem to appreciate Vance and his efforts as much as she did, she decided a minute later. They actually seemed quite agitated, enough so that they began swooping and diving, chanting their creepy "Ho ho ho"s. Just when she thought things couldn't get any weirder, the elf-robots actually began firing  some sort of continuous laser-beams from their eyes.

Startled, she watched the beam break through the pavement of the street with bewilderment for longer than she was proud to admit (seriously, whoever cooked this crap up was totally messed up in the head). Scrambling to pull herself back into the fight, she focused her efforts on keeping the elf-robots from the civilian-packed buildings.

Knocking them away and tearing a few of them apart, Skye swore as her efforts did nothing but agitate them more. It barely seemed to make a dent, for every elf-robot she destroyed another took its place. More and more kept appearing, and she didn't see an end to them.

Out of nowhere one of them crashed into her back, sending her tumbling forward with a grunt of pain. Using her downward momentum Skye managed to catch the drone by the arms and throw it over her head out into the street where she quickly disassembled it.

Wincing as she stumbled back to her feet (that was going to leave a bruise) she heard an oddly familiar noise and glanced up in time to see Iron Man come blasting through, blowing up several drones on his way down the street.  She waited for a moment but he didn’t come back. A loud explosion sounded from a distance. Spinning around to face the sound, she caught  sight of a thin pillar of smoke through the buildings off in the direction Iron Man had gone.

Okay, so apparently the elf-robots and present-bombs weren’t the worst of it. 

Catching the vibrations of several more drones she jerked them all apart. The street was clear of civilians now so she was able to race across the street  without worrying about being hit by a passing car. Moving to the base of the building Vance was currently on top of, she located the fire escape on the far side of the building and leapt up to grab the bottom rung of the ladder that connected to the stairs. 

Moving quickly, she ascended the stairs as rapidly as she could manage. Every other landing or so, she paused to blow up a few more drones until she reached the roof.

Spotting Vance from the top was easy to do, he was the guy standing precariously near the edge of the building, his arms out and his whole frame trembling with strained effort. “Vance?” she called as she approached him.

“Busy,” he grunted as a large tremor rocked through him.

Suddenly Skye realized the vibrations of his body were wrong, they shouldn’t be moving like they were unless…she hurried to his side and resisted the urge to gasp when she noticed the blood streaming from his nose and the pained expression on his face. His eyes were screwed shut in concentration; this was taking way more out of him than she’d anticipated.

Glancing around desperately for some sort of a plan or idea, she realized that the small pillar of smoke she'd spotted several blocks away earlier was now much larger; not only that but there was something white an massive stumbling its way through the buildings.

Yeah, the Avengers definitely had their hands full with _that_. Who builds a giant _snowman_ to terrorize a city? She shook her head and frowned as she thrust her hand at some elf-robots and blew them apart.  She needed a plan, her eyes scanned the area around them as her mind searched wildly for some way to fix the situation to their benefit. Piece by piece an idea began for form, the final piece clicking into place as her eyes locked on the elf-robots that remained.

“Can you lift the bombs up higher and get them into a group?” she asked, genuinely concerned that Vance might not be able to do as she asked.

“Any particular reason?” he gasped, sweat trickling down the side of his face.

Skye nodded even though she knew he couldn’t see her, “I have an idea,” she placed her hand on his shoulder to squeeze reassuringly, “Just get them up as high as you can alright? I’ll handle the rest.”

“Got nothin’ else to do,” Vance groaned.

Amused with his attempt at levity even when he was obviously in a lot of pain, Skye nodded to herself and steadied her stance. Reaching out she locked on as many drones as she could and took over the vibrations in the air around them to manipulate them into flying upwards.  Vance did his part and levitated the packages up and into one general location, careful all the while not to let them touch one another.  Turning, Skye did what she could to toss the elf-robots in the direction of the packages.

Releasing her control on the elf-robots she lifted her hands to attempt to shield them from the upcoming blast just in time. The drones careened into the packages and lit the sky up with a large explosion that would have knocked her and Vance to the ground if she hadn’t shielded them from the blast at the last second.

Vance groaned as his control over the packages was released and fell to his knees to clutch at his head. Skye waited a moment longer to make sure they were clear of the blast before lowering her sort-of shield and moving to his side, “Hey,” she called for his attention, carefully taking his pulse and checking his body's vibrations for any damage she might not be able to see, “Talk to me Vance, you okay?”

He grunted and shifted until he was sitting down, “I’m fine,” he muttered, “happens sometimes when I push too hard,” he waved vaguely at his head and then swiped at the blood under his nose.

Skye nodded, only partially believing him, “I can help with that,” she told him, “Train you how to use your gift to its full potential without the bloody noses and headaches.”

“Yeah?” Vance slowly tilted his head up to look at her, his eyes intrigued.

“Uh-huh,” she confirmed, “And your soulmate would be there to help too,” she added, just to put all her cards on the table.

He blinked slowly, “Angel?” he murmured, a slow and shy smile crossing his lips as he said the name.

“Yeah,” Skye nodded, “She’s the one who sent me to find you.”

“Does she have powers too?” he sounded surprised.

Skye hummed in agreement, her eyes tracking the drones she hadn’t stopped as they aborted their movements in her area and instead turned and raced for the Avengers’ fight, “Yeah, micro-wave control,” she told him absently, “Take a day or two to think about it and call me if you decide that’s what you want to do,” she rose to her feet and checked him over once more. Deciding he was well enough off, she left his side and walked to the other side of the building.

“How?” Vance called after her, stumbling to his feet, “I don’t have your contact information.”

Turning around to smirk at him Skye pointed to his pocket where she had placed a card with all the necessary information an hour or so ago, “You’re not the only one who knows how to pickpocket Newbie,” she winked at him, “You might want to get inside somewhere until this is over,” she cautioned before taking a running leap off the building they were on to land on the next building.

She was surprised when he appeared next to her a second later with a thud, “I might be able to help,” he argued, grabbing her arm, “If I can’t, I promise I’ll stay on the sidelines,” he promised, “Just let me come.”

Skye studied him for a moment before nodding once, “Keep up,” she ordered already taking off for the next building over.

Leaping and bounding across rooftops, heading in the direction the elf-robots had gone (and where the giant snowman still was) she found herself smiling a little as Vance kept up with her easily. Where she used her powers to help her across so did he, and when she took jumps and simply tucked and rolled, he typically tried to the same. It took the two of them only a few minutes of this until they were both coming to a stop on one of the buildings above the Avengers’ fight.

Taking in the sight of the elf-robots lasering things left and right, the package bombs they were dropping every now and again, on top of the chaos of the giant, equally robotic snowman, Skye actually couldn't contain her sigh. This was her life.  Creepy, messed up Christmas-robots. 

Trying to decide her next move, Skye surveyed the area carefully. On the one hand, Steve was down there; her _soulmate_ was down there, she could sense him even if she couldn’t see him, and part of her really, _really_ needed to be down there helping him, protecting him.  On the other hand, she still couldn’t tell him anything about who she was or what she did for a living, so it may be better if she just stayed out of things.

“Are we going to help?” Vance’s voice broke through her thoughts, “Because as weird as it is to say this, the Avengers look like they could _use_ some help.”

Several drones encased in a reddish mist suddenly whipped by them. Darting a quick look at the ground, she found the Scarlet Witch straining with the effort of using her powers all over the battlefield. Reaching out with her own gifts, Skye relieved her of part of her burden and obliterated the elf-robots caught in the young woman's mists.

Scarlet Witch actually staggered back a few steps at the abrupt destruction of the robots, but she rallied quickly, refocusing on another batch. Swinging those around and bashing them into the ground, Skye gave a grin as her method worked just as well.

A squeal of tires, brought her attention away from a few rogue elf-robots that had escaped the mist. The sound was completely out of place in the long-evacuated area. Looking down, Skye frowned as she watched a group of men exit several large black SUVs.  All of them were carrying weapons and each and every one of them looked battle ready.

It took hardly any effort at all to pick out their leader, his face was the only one visible. Growling to herself, Skye forced her heart-rate to steady even as she recognized the man, "Kebo."

The man’s presence told her all she needed to know about who these armored men were. The HYDRA agents fanned out, guns at the ready as they headed down alleyways to surround the evacuated area. Mind made up and temporary plan in place, Skye turned to Vance, “See those guys in black?” she pointed a few of them out, “I’m going to go give them a little trouble,” she looked at him with a small smirk, “You stay here and keep an eye on the drone-things, if any of them get too close to the buildings where the civilians are you rip them apart or send them crashing into the ground. Keep the civilians safe. Understand?”

Vance nodded once, a look of determination crossing his face, “What if _you_ need help?” he asked.

“I won’t,” she answered simply, her smirk growing a little and a spark in her eyes, “Stay here,” she pointed to their spot meaningfully.

“Yeah yeah,” he agreed with a roll of his eyes, “Keep the newb out of the action, got it.”

Skye nodded once at him before stepping off the side of the building. Using seismic waves, she sent several rapid pulsations at the ground to slow her decent until her feet were solidly beneath her. Moving instantly after the nearest three HYDRA agents, she managed to surprise the first one by tackling him from behind. Stunned, the man froze. She sent a fist flying into his face, knocking him out before he could make a sound.

"Freeze!" the call came from the other men. Lifting her head, Skye slowly pulled herself to her feet. Her hands lifted from her sides into the proper surrendering position.

Ignoring the mean smirks they both wore, she let them think they'd caught her for all of two seconds. Then with a smirk and wink, she shook their guns to pieces.

While they were still gaping at the parts of the weapons that remained in their hands, she lurched toward them. The nearest guard she grabbed by the straps of his vest and jerked. His body propelled forward until it came into harsh contact with her knee. He gasped for air as he stumbled when she shoved him into his partner. 

They both toppled to the ground with grunts of pain. In a smooth movement, Skye reached silently behind her and tugged her ICER free of its holster at the small of her back. A single shot for each of them knocked them out. A quick check of the agent's ears, delivered an enemy earpiece to her hands.

Placing it in her own ear she turned and took off after the other four agents she could sense nearby. The comms clicked on for a moment as one of the agents spoke, “Is that the Winter Soldier?”

Skye frowned as she moved around a corner, why did that voice sound so hopeful?

“It is!” a second agent confirmed, “Kebo, come in,” he exclaimed excitedly.

“What?” a vaguely familiar voice grunted.

“We have eyes on the _Winter Soldier_ ,” the agent replied promptly, his voice trembling a little in what Skye hoped was fear rather than excitement.

There was a short pause before Kebo spoke again, “All nearby agents prepare to extract the Winter Solider,” he ordered, “If we do this right the Boss will be very pleased,” there was a pause and then, “On my order we move in, clear?”

A series of affirmative noises were heard and Skye felt her veins run cold with the realization that the Winter Solider, aka Bucky Barnes, aka her _soulmate’s best friend_ was about to be attacked by several HYDRA agents all at once. Deciding covert could take a backseat, she blasted through the four agents she'd been tracking as they were moving to follow Kebo’s orders. She didn't even pause to check and make sure they were unconscious before blowing past them and down another alley.

Coming to a halt just inside the alley entrance she glanced around carefully. Her eyes locked almost instantly on the Winter Soldier where he was off to the side shooting and bashing at several elf-robots as they swarmed him.  She darted a quick look around, reaching out with her vibration senses, and froze as she recognized the number of HYDRA agents she'd counted earlier had somehow increased.

“Awaiting your orders sir,” a woman’s voice spoke up, startling her back into focus.

Blinking once as Kebo stepped out of the shadows of another alley across the street, Skye steadied her heartrate for a moment before focusing on the elf-robots that were swarming Barnes. Those she could take out easily, and without the elf-robots distracting him, Barnes would be able to focus on Kebo and his men long enough for her to make it to his side to assist him.

Destroying the drones a few at a time she frowned in surprise when she noticed Kebo lifting a gun and taking aim at Barnes. Hadn't they wanted to take him alive?

Moving from the alley in an instant she blew apart Kebo's gun just as the words, “Move in,” were ordered.

Kebo stared at the scattered pieces of his weapon in surprise for a split second. Then his head whipped up and scanned the area defensively.  “Everyone be on the look out, Quake is in the area!”

The sound of her codename being uttered with such irritation and possible fear made her smirk, “I see her!” another agent shouted, but she was to distracted by the six men who were now engaging Barnes to care.

Her cover was blown anyway she decided, so she silently moved out from her hiding place. She locked eyes with Kebo for a split second before taking off in a run toward Barnes.

Reaching the growing group of agents around Barnes, she grabbed the first around the neck. Kicking out his knee, she tugged him in front of her. Bullets flew her way, but her human shield stopped them long enough for her to fire off a few shots of her own. Three agents were put down in quick succession by her bullets, and a fourth was grazed badly enough to send him stumbling to the ground.

A second was all the Winter Solider needed. While Barnes dealt with the injured agent, Skye dropped the man she'd been shielding herself with. She reached out for the HYDRA agent closest to her and grabbed him by the arm. A swift jerk and yank sent the agent over her shoulder. A twist of her wrist dislocated his; a pivot and a kick at his head dropped the agent to the ground.

Barnes managed to pull a knife out of no where, but Skye barely gave it a thought before an arm slipped around her neck. She felt the all-too-familiar sensation of a gun muzzle being jammed against her temple and stilled enough to let the goon behind her think he had the upper hand. Adjusting her stance she lifted her free hand to the arm cutting off her air supply. It took no effort at all to send enough vibrations at just the right frequency to shatter his arm bones.

The man shouted in pain and jerked back from her. She helped him along by ramming the back of her head into his nose hard enough to break his nose.

Whipping around, Skye used his hunched over form as leverage to get her legs around another HYDRA agent's neck. Using her momentum, she managed to pull the agent to the ground. His head cracked against the pavement hard enough to take him out for the count. She managed to roll into the fall, however, and moved easily into a low crouch, her gun at the ready. 

Four more agents fell in a quick series of aim-fire movements. A fifth and sixth were in her sights when something large and heavy tackled her to the ground. Grunting with surprise, Skye struggled to regain her feet, but the man on top of her was too heavy to move and much stronger than she was.

He grinned meanly at her as he managed to get his legs on either side of her hips. His gloved hands curled around her throat, stealing the air she'd been struggling to regain after the heavy impact.  Gasping, her hands sought frantically for a weapon of some sort (her gun had been knocked away in the struggle).

Finding nothing in easy reach her hands aimed instead for his face. He'd made the mistake of not wearing any protective eye-wear so she aimed her fingers directly for them. Yelping, the man's grip on her throat loosened just enough for her to gather some much-needed air.

She jerked her elbows down onto his forearms hard enough to unlock his elbows, and took advantage of how the movement brought his chest closer to her to drive her open hand into his throat. His own body betrayed him as his hands flew instinctively from her neck to his own. 

Shifting in place, she leveraged her body around to flip him over onto his back beneath her. Driving her fist one last time into his temple, she knocked him out and scrambled to her feet. 

She took a quick look at the situation and found Barnes engaging three agents at once, two of whom had knives and were doing their best to slice and dice the soldier. The problem was that Barnes appeared to have lost his own knife when she hadn't been looking. 

Spotting it on the ground a few feet away, she lunged towards it. A second later found it flying through the air until it lodged itself in the back of one of the agents diving at Barnes. Not pausing to see if he was actually dead or not, she ignored his dropping body and moved towards Barnes and his attackers.

She'd just taken a step when a sharp, painful, sting shot through her shoulder. Gasping, Skye instinctively reached for the pain, pressing her hand down on something warm and wet. The smell of copper hit her nose next and she didn't have to look to realize that she'd been shot.

Whirling around where she stood, her eyes locked on Kebo where he stood across the street, smirking his stupid sociopath-smirk.

He lifted his gun then and sent a quick burst of bullets that she caught midair with ease. (The bullet wound hurt like hell but she wasn’t going to worry about it until this was over.) Dropping the bullets she tore apart Kebo’s gun as she raced at him.

Analyzing him as she moved she recognized he was stronger than her, but he was also big and she knew his size would slow him down while her own size would lend itself for quicker movements.  She sent a fist towards his face as she reached him. Predictably, Kebo managed to block the blow, he moved with her and wrapped her arm awkwardly around his, pulling it back and up.

Pushing through the pain of the position, Skye hooked her leg around his, shifted her body weight, and yanked him off balance. While he stumbled enough to lose focus on her arm he somehow managed to remain on his feet. Using their continued closeness while she still could, she rammed her fist into his ribs with a solid punch, feeling grim satisfaction at the snapping that followed. 

Yelling, Kebo jerked free of her, carefully favoring his side. He panted once before throwing a few punches of his own. One of his hits managed to wind her, and another definitely bruised a rib of her own, but she didn't let the pain slow her down. 

The next fist that he threw her way she side-stepped, but before he could pull back she grabbed his arm. Tugging on the arm just a little, she used her grip on him to leverage herself up. Scissoring her legs around his waist, she propelled herself backwards and sent them both collapsing to the ground. 

Using their combined momentum, she rolled in a smooth movement back to her feet. While he was still stunned from the sudden impact with the ground, she stomped the heel of her boot in his face that knocked him out and left him with a bloody and broken nose.

She stared down at him panting for a minute, trying to catch her breath. Lifting a bruised hand, she carded it through her tangled hair and turned to scan the fight around her. She spotted and destroyed a pair of elf-robots with a clench of her fist and took note of the locations of the various Avengers.

Her eyes caught on Steve for a brief second before she forced herself to move on. Returning her focus to the man she'd originally set out to assist, she found Barnes backed against a storefront wall, six more HYDRA goons closing in on him.

Impatiently she stalked forward and scooped up her ICER where she'd lost it several minutes ago. Her hand shot out, sending the agents flying in different directions with the forceful vibration she aimed at them.  The two who were spared from the tremor-blast, she shot with her ICER. One. Two. They both fell to the ground, completely unconscious.

Still breathing heavily from her fight with Kebo, Skye checked on Barnes and found him already staring at her. He appeared wary and uncertain, his fingers pressed tightly against a stab wound in his leg.

“You good?” she asked (because really, what else was there to say at this point?).

He stared a moment longer before his eyes seemed to lighten with recognition or some sort and he blinked, “You’re Skye,” he stated, certain.

Slowly she nodded, “That's what I call myself,” she confirmed, bending over to pick up a gun from one of the downed agents, “You got a name you prefer? Winter? Soldier? Barnes or Bucky?” she queried as she checked the clip of the gun to find it mostly empty. Tossing both the gun and mostly-empty clip in different directions without really aiming at anything in particular, she scanned the area for another weapon that could be useful. 

“Bucky,” he answered a hesitating second later. She looked over at him and found him looking over the three dozen or so men that were scattered in various states of dead and unconscious around them, “You can really fight, Doll,” he commented, his voice impressed.

She checked the clip of another gun, found it mostly full and reloaded it into the gun it had come from, adding a shrug at the end. Holding out the weapon for him to take she nodded to the bodies “HYDRA and I don’t really get along,” she turned as she sensed Kebo rousing and shot him with the ICER. Twice. Just to make sure, “Now, what do you say—“

But Bucky’s eyes weren’t watching her anymore. Following his gaze, Skye watched as a vaguely familiar form leaped from the top corner of one of the buildings down the street. The man appeared to be attempting to escape from several incoming elf-robots; unfortunately they'd spotted him mid-fall and four of them broke away from the rest to catch him.

Despite knowing there was nothing either of them could do, Skye saw Bucky take several jerky steps towards the man. Her hand moved out to signal him to stop, her own eyes carefully tracking Hawkeye's captives.   

The man himself was jerking and flailing best he could in their grasp, she could even hear his sarcastic shouts of protest over the fighting around them. None of Hawkeye's best efforts did much to abort the elf-robots actions. 

At least not until they'd managed to haul him higher than he'd been before and several yards closer. Then, in the middle of a very detailed explanation of exactly how Hawkeye was intending to rend the robots limb from limb, (it was an amusing diatribe that would have had her laughing if the situation were different) the elf-robots abruptly released him. 

Hawkeye's commentary cut off with a loud shout as he began an ungraceful fall towards the ground.

“Oh for the love of—“ Skye's words were cut off as Bucky's voice cut in, "Hawkeye's falling!" he shouted, his hand on his ear, "If anyone with flight capabilities is nearby, I repeat, Hawkeye is--" his words cut off as he noticed Skye steadying her stance and raising her hands. "What are you doing?" his tone was harsh but his eyes showed his concern.

"Helping," she responded as she aimed and let loose a mirror of the vibrations she used to lift herself from the ground. Ignoring Bucky's look of surprise, she carefully focused on decreasing the vibrations to lower Hawkeye to the ground.

A loud, deep roar rattled the world around her, interrupting her concentration. Hawkeye yelped as her carefully measured vibrations stuttered and dropped him a few feet, "Is that the Hulk?" she questioned. Before her companion could answer, her eyes caught sight of a giant green blur. The rage monster leaped from a nearby building and collided with Hawkeye, snatching him up in a pair of massive green arms. 

Skye flinched as her vibrations came in contact with something completely unnatural, but she forced herself to maintain her composure. A second later the Hulk landed several yards away, Hawkeye cradled to his chest; the impact was so hard Skye felt it all the way in her bones.

As she gasped at the feeling, two very large, very green, very  _angry_ eyes whipped around to glare at her. She had to fight back her instincts to remain where she stood and not back away like they were warning her to do. 

The giant grunted as he gently set Hawkeye down on his feet. Once he was assured of the smaller man's safety he turned his whole body towards Skye and took one large, menacing step towards her. He stared at her; she stared back. 

As their staring contest continued, a low, terrifying growl rumbled through his chest, shaking her on a level she knew most people couldn't feel. She let the staring contest continue for several seconds more before gathering herself and rolling her eyes, “Don’t you have some bad guys to go smash big guy?” she questioned.

As if to demonstrate what he should be doing, her hand flew up and clenched in a fist. Several nearby elf-robots crunched in on themselves, smashing together and exploding in midair.

Hulk watched the crumpled pieces of metal fall to the ground with confusion for a second before he turned to her, “SHAKER SMASH!” he declared loudly with a slow, wicked smirk.

Skye chuckled, “Yeah,” she nodded, “I smash," she demonstrated her great smashing abilities with another group of elf-robots. How many of these things did the Avenger-Villain-of-the-Week build anyway?

Letting out a gleeful, bone-rattling roar, Hulk launched from the ground, colliding with another pair of elf-robots and victoriously ripping them apart. 

Amused with how easily she'd gone from enemy to ally in Hulk's mind, Skye pulled her eyes away from him and scanned the surrounding area, doing her own quick check on Hawkeye. Her eyes caught on a glint of something up over Bucky's shoulder and she frowned, narrowing her gaze until she found the source. 

There on top of one of the nearby buildings perched a black-clad HYDRA sniper. Scowling to herself as she absently noted a dozen or more other HYDRA agents moving into positions up and down the street, Skye scanned the surrounding area looking for a long-distance rifle she vaguely recalled seeing earlier.

Spotting it several yards away, she ignored Hawkeye's attempt to engage her in some sort of conversation and moved to retrieve the weapon. Once it was in her hands, she quickly inspected it. Deciding it was safe to use, she made sure it was loaded, clicked off the safety, sighted the sniper and fired.

The sniper jolted and the weapon he'd been holding scattered from his hands. Only taking a second to reassure herself that he was dead, Skye then turned her sights on several more targets further down the road. One agent dropped. Then two. Then three, four, five. A sixth and then a seventh before she lowered the rifle. Efficiently breaking down the rifle, she tossed it in different directions, leaving them to worried about later. 

“Your guys any closer to figuring out how to destroy the snowman thing?” she asked, her attention on the giant robot in question. As silence greeted her answer, she pulled her focus back to look over at the other two men. They were both staring at her as if she were the very interesting piece of a very interesting puzzle. “What?” she questioned, resisting the urge to wipe at her face, just in case.

Bucky exchanged a look with Hawkeye before turning his blue eyes back on her, “You’re a sniper too?”

She furrowed her eyebrows, “It was one of the first things I was trained to do,” she told them, deliberately not specifying where she was trained or by whom, “Now, about the snowman?” a few more drones flew by and she ripped them apart without much thought (it was almost too easy to find the elf-robots' vibrations now).

Hawkeye frowned at her, looking thoughtful before slowly speaking, his words aimed at someone she couldn't see, “Where are we at with the snowman, Iron Man?” he asked, moving around Skye and loosing a few arrows at the next few elf-robots that came by.

As one both Hawkeye and Bucky's heads tilted up, their eyes moving methodically across the rooftops around them, “What?” Skye prodded, lifting her own head to scan for threats.

“Iron Man believes the only way we’re going to be able to stop the snowman-thing is by finding the person controlling it,” Bucky supplied, “There seems to be some sort of barrier around it that keeps our weapons from being able to do any damage to the machine. Unless we can find the controller we aren’t going to be able to do much to stop it.”

Skye nodded and mulled the new information over. Closing her eyes she sent out a few echo-location-like vibrations to try and locate all the humans around to see if there was anyone who was somewhere they didn’t belong.  She noticed Vance as an outlier right away and there was someone blurring around so quickly she couldn’t quite get a lock on them, (it was a familiar sensation thanks to Slingshot, so it didn't worry her) but other than that the only person who really felt out of place was…

“They’re inside the snowman,” she realized. Opening her eyes and ignoring the incredulous looks she was getting from the two Avengers, Skye locked her eyes on the machine in question. After checking that the coast was clear of HYDRA agents, Avengers and elf-robots alike, she took off down the street to try and get closer to the giant, metal snowman.

It seemed insane, even to her, for there to actually be a human inside the massive machine, but as she drew closer it was confirmed, there was definitely a person in the Snowman.

Her path to the snowman-machine was cut off by a blur of brown and metal charging across her way. Stumbling to a halt, she stared with bone-deep incredulity at the metal, misshapen reindeer prancing all around the intersection. " _Really_?!" she exclaimed, watching the reindeer bow it's metal head and begin discharging bullets from the tips of its antlers with enough force it bounced the reindeer back several inches.

"For _real_?" she thrust an open palm at the bullets and scattered them harmlessly across the ground, "What's next, Santa Claus?" 

“Ho, Ho, Ho!” three of the elf drones cried in their dissonant voices as they dive-bombed her. She rolled her eyes, thoroughly over this whole fight, and passively tore them apart with a flick of her fingers.

She felt the next series of bullets headed her way and turned to stop them but was caught off guard by someone tackling her from the side. For the second time that afternoon, she found herself colliding with the ground, a large body impacting the pavement with her.

Immediately on the defensive, she started to use her powers to launch her attacker off of her body only to squeak in surprise when she realized that her attacker was none other than Captain America. The realization startled her enough that her powers lost focus, causing her soulmate’s heavy form to drop the few inches she’d managed to lift him off of her.

“Ow,” she groaned as he landed on her already sore ribs.

The man above her grunted in agreement and carefully lifted himself off of her. He stared down at her for a moment in disbelief, recognition dawning, “Skye?” he murmured his eyes meeting hers with surprise and hope.

She blinked up at him for a second, “Steve,” she replied softly.

The vibration of more bullets spraying their way distracted her from the blueness of his eyes (seriously, she’d thought it was impossible to have eyes that blue until just now) and the instinct to protect him surged forward. Without conscious thought, she leveraged herself up and flipped them over ending up with Steve on his back beneath her as she straddled his stomach.

The bullets stopped midair as she lifted her hands and her vibrations hit them. Soft plinking noises reached her ears as she dropped the bullets and her arms simultaneously, still struggling to catch her breath from the tackle. The bullet wound in her shoulder throbbed with a vengeance, reminding her of its presence. 

Forcing the pain away she did a quick reconnaissance scan of the area. Seeing the typical mid-Avenger-crisis-chaos, but no immediate danger to herself or Steve, she gave Steve a brief once over and struggled not to loose herself in the feel of having him so close to her. Blinking her way back into focus, she propelled herself backwards and up to her feet in a smooth movement. 

She spotted a nearby bullet-shooting robo-deer and focused her powers on the machine. Finding what she needed, she crushed the metal reindeer before it could fire any more bullets. As her feet staggered back a few steps, her hand lifted to the slow-bleeding wound to do a quick cursory check to make sure the bullet was gone (she knew she should have done it earlier, but she'd been a little distracted).

Relieved to find that she didn't need to try and perform some weird sort of vibration-surgery to remove any stray bits of metal, Skye lowered her bloody fingers, wiped them on her ruined pants (they were covered in all sorts of things she didn't want to think about already anyway)and extended her hand to Steve to help him up.

She pointedly averted her gaze from his as his warm, calloused fingers wrapped around hers.  Once he was on his feet, she released his hand, but was surprised to find him still holding on. Without conscious thought, her eyes lifted to stare at him and her lips parted with a question, but before she could get it out he was already speaking.

“You’ve been shot!” Steve’s voice was warm and it reverberated in her in a way she'd never felt before. It was almost as if the very sound of his voice resonated with her on a soul deep level that wasn't just connected to her powers.

Swallowing past the urge to just fold herself into his arms, (and resisting the urge to poke them just to see if they were even  _real_ ) Skye shook off his concern with a businesslike nod, "We can't really deal with that right now," she stepped out of reach and tugged her hand free, "We need to focus on the--" a elf-robot swooped by, interrupting her suggested course of action with its laser-eyes gouging a deep divot into the pavement around them, "Really?" she exclaimed.

She blew the elf-robot up with a scowl. Ignoring Steve's attempt to reach out for her, she braced herself as best she could, closed her eyes and reached out with her powers to locate all the elf-robots she could sense in the area. Once she was certain she had a lock on the majority of them, she inhaled a long, deep breath and _ripped_ them apart.

The effort left her winded and a little lightheaded. She stumbled a bit as the rest of the world returned to clarity around her, and felt the warmth of Steve's hand on her uninjured arm steadying her through the brief wave of vertigo.  Steeling herself, she opened her eyes and carefully extracted herself from Steve's grip again. 

Turning away from him so she wouldn't have to see the confusion on his face, she turned to study the snowman. Iron Man blew past, pelting the shield around the snowman with several different weapons, obviously trying to find one that would work against the force field surrounding the machine.

Focusing on the shield itself rather than the giant robot it protected, Skye felt as it wavered and fluctuated with a pulsing rhythm under the brunt of each attack.  From what she could tell after her quick once over of the machine and the shield surrounding it, there was no way to break through the shield with the methods they were using.

But as she looked closer at the fluctuation of the shield and individual vibrations of the dirty-white machine she was relieved to find that she would be capable of destroying the robot. Taking a breath, Skye finally allowed herself to look at Steve, “I can take the snowman apart,” she told him, “The person controlling these robots is inside,” she gestured at the snowman, “If you could keep the remaining reindeer things from attacking me while I concentrate on the snowman, I would appreciate it.”

Steve stared at her, looking like he wanted to say something but eventually he just nodded, “We can do that,” he agreed, “Avengers,” he barked into the comms a second later, “Focus your energy on the reindeer...yes, that includes you Iron Man.”

Leaving the Avenger's to do their part, Skye settled her stance and set to work, focusing entirely on the snowman-machine. She searched the entirety of the snowman looking for a weak or vulnerable spot and finally found it in the tiny seams scattered across the surface of the giant, round, robot.

The welding that held the seams together was clearly done by an amateur as it almost appeared to be held together by sheer luck. It was the perfect place to start shaking the snowman apart. 

The force field between her and the robot made things a little more difficult, but she persevered. Bit by bit the snowman began to crack at the seams, small screws shivered loose until she was able to tear off large chunks of the metal.

She vaguely became aware of a petite woman moving to flank her on her right, but she paid her audience no mind. Even though she and Steve knew next to nothing about each other (though arguably she probably knew more about Steve than he did about her, what with him being a National Icon and all), she thought she at least knew him well enough to say that he wouldn't let this woman hover if he wasn't sure she was one of the good guys.

It took a few screws clattering to the ground before the dark haired woman in red spoke, "You are the one tearing it apart?" her speech was formal and had the twang of a foreign accent Skye didn't recognize.

“I'm definitely trying to,” Skye agreed between carefully steadied breaths. Her feet shifted a little as if to gain some sort of leverage as if to brace against something, but there was nothing pushing back against her. It was an odd phenomenon that she'd been forced to get used to since receiving her powers. Her mind mentally expected something physical in reaction to her powers, so she had learned to compensate physically. Tearing the snowman apart, for instance, seemed like it should be physically draining, but all it was doing was making her heart race and her brain hurt.

She felt the woman's hand come to rest on her uninjured shoulder but while she thought it was an odd form of contact she thought nothing of it. Not until she felt the familiar sensation of a telepath rifling through her mind. Well, at least that answered the question of who the woman was. Skye threw up the mental walls the other telepaths at the Cocoon had shown her how to make to shield herself from mental attacks. She felt the Scarlet Witch bounce off the mental walls and sensed her surprise through the connection the witch was forming through the hand on her shoulder. 

Allowing herself only a brief second of amusement, Skye nodded her head at the snowman to remind the witch of their mission, "If you could get out of my head and do something to help with this guy I would appreciate it Scarlet Witch," she commented passively.

The hand on her shoulder lifted and the woman moved to stand within Skye's peripheral vision. She said nothing more, offering no apologies, but her hands lifted and a red mist flared to life around them both.

Instinctively Skye felt her abilities reach out to try and get a feel for the mist, to sense and comprehend the vibrations it made. What she found was a feeling of numbness, almost like what she'd imagine having a phantom limb would feel like. The mist was there, she could see it, but she could only sense it through locating anything that  _wasn't_ moving and that  _didn't_ have a vibration of its own.

Pushing aside her intrigue Skye refocused on her mission until piece by piece the snowman began to fall apart. Eventually the entire front of the snowman’s stomach was pealed away, revealing a pimply faced twenty-something in a dirty old Santa uniform. 

At this point Skye didn’t even have it in her to be surprised or amused by the man’s appearance.

Expending the energy it took to roll her eyes, Skye gave the  man a quick once over and froze as she noted the flashing red light attached to the dozens of pipes that wrapped around the man's chest.  Out of the corner of her eye she saw the Scarlett Witch move to extract the man from the machine.

“Wait!” she exclaimed, “Stop!” she grabbed the woman in red’s arm to get her attention, “He has a—“

The man in the snowman robot sent her a nasty grin, clearly over his sudden and unexpected exposure to the world outside his machine, “Merry Christmas!” he crowed, falling into a maniacal fit of laughter that sent chills down her spine. His hand lifted and she watched with shock as his thumb pressed a button on top of the trigger he held. A countdown began. One minute on the clock.  Then, to make matters worse, as if the TNT strapped to the creep wasn't bad enough, the snowman's black eyes began to turn ominously red, obviously preparing to detonate along with the man.

The size of the explosion she calculated was about to detonate made her mind and heart race, her blood surging with adrenaline. There were still civilians in the buildings nearby, and while property damage was pretty much sky high already, the crater that would be left behind by the blast would be devastating. She needed some way to protect everyone. Her mind fell back on the method she'd employed to defend against the elf-robots and their detonation-packages and she whipped around.

"Vance!" she shouted, lifting a hand to try and catch the attention of the other Inhuman from several rooftops away. She hoped against hope that the newbie had been watching her movements throughout the battle, and could see her now. "Vance!" she called again and pointed at the snowman. She made several wide repetative gestures to indicate that she wanted him to lift the giant metal machine from the ground and mentally hoped her meaning translated from so far away. 

Turning back to the snowman herself, she raised her own hands and did what she could to try and get it off the ground. After a beat and just enough effort for her to realize that getting it into the air on her own would be impossible, the machine was suddenly launched off the ground and into the sky above the buildings. 

Taking a startled step back, Skye glanced around as the reindeer began to rise as well.  They rose higher and higher until they too had cleared the tops of the buildings around them. There was a short, heavy pause, as if the whole world was holding its breath; then with a sudden flash, the sky lit up as the snowman, reindeer, and some unfortunate and messed up soul in a Santa-suit all detonated in the sky above them.

Skye’s hands lifted on instinct as she put as much energy as she had left into shielding the surrounding buildings and people from the concussive blast that followed. A red barrier appeared overhead, lessening her load and she caught sight of the Scarlet Witch with her hands raised in a similar position to her own. A dark blue barrier, similar to the Scarlet Witch's overlapped with them both, bolserting their own shields as debris fell from the sky. 

Holding the seismic shield in place for a moment longer that was probably necessary, Skye was the last to let down her shield. Finaly releasing her powers, her arms dropped heavily to her sides as she swayed in place. Her eyes slipped shut as she attempted to slow her breathing and ease her racing heart out of battle-mode down to a speed resembling normal. Her shoulders slumped and her pain receptors came back online as the adrenaline that had sustained her through the fight began to wane. 

She stumbled a step as she felt her balance begin to waver but a pair of warm, strong hands caught her around the waist, steadying her.  The touch sent another spike of adrenaline racing through her, but it wasn't much.

"Easy, Skye," Steve's voice was low and calming and did more to steady her than any of her own efforts, "Just take a second to relax, we need to get you somewhere you can have that wound looked at."

Mentally Skye knew she needed to pull away, but physically the idea was all but impossible. Steve was warm, he was safe, he was  _right there_ ; it was insanity to think that she could do anything but relax back into his chest and let him hold her up for a minute.

The small part of her that she'd left focused on Vance and his natural vibrations pinged to awareness of a strong sense of  _fear_ and  _run_. Almost the instant she identified the emotions a sharp cry of her name reached her ears, though it was faint and hard to hear while Vance was so far away.

Her eyes snapped open and her body jerked free of Steve's comforting grasp, "Vance," she breathed, already racing back to the building she'd left Vance standing on.

Passing by where she'd last seen Kebo, laying unconcious and maybe (if she was lucky) even dead, her heart dropped and picked up its pace when she realized that he was not where she left him. Several other HYDRA agents were also missing, but she pushed that out of her mind as she thrust her hands down at the pavement and launched herself from the ground. 

Rising several stories in seconds was a little disorienting but she forced herself to focus. Uncaring of the shattered ground she left behind her, Skye landed nimbly on the rooftop just in time to see Kebo go flying backwards, encased in a blue sort of fog similar to what the Scarlet Witch had been using earlier.

Her eyes traced back over his trajectory and found Vance standing on the far-side ledge. His eyes were wide and panicked, but he was managing to keep the HYDRA agents and their weapons at bay. Skye felt a brief moment of pride for the young man, with a little training she had no doubt that he would make an excellent addition to her Secret Warriors.

Her pride was quickly overridden by the realization of why the HYDRA agents had shown up to this fight in the first place. It had seemed too coincidental that HYDRA had appeared at a seemingly innocuous Avengers-fight-of-the-week. The whole robotic snowmen, reindeer, elves and explosive presents were a little too gaudy, even for HYDRA, but it would be just like them to take advantage of the situation to enact their own plans. Plans (it was now clear to see) to kidnap an Inhuman.

It made sense that if Skye had been able to track down Vance, it wouldn't have taken HYDRA long to do the same. Any opportunity to find and abduct a super-powered person was an opportunity not to be missed in HYDRA's book, expecially with their new, Ward-backed-and-improved compliance training. 

Irritated with the whole situation and throughly done with fighting for the day, Skye lifted her stolen HYDRA-gun free of where it rested in her ankle holster. She took aim, breathed in once, and rapidly shot and killed each of the agents with careful precision. Shifting the HYDRA-gun to her other hand, she pulled her ICER from its holster and fired the remaining rounds at Kebo where he was struggling to regain his footing. He dropped to the ground with a groan and there he stayed. 

Unlike the other agents who weren't likely to know anything, Kebo would make for an excellent informant, he was Ward's right hand man, and therefore as high up in HYDRA as it was possible to get without being Ward himself.

After double checking the area, Skye turned to Vance, "You did a good job here," she praised him, refering to both his help with the fight and his ability to distract HYDRA long enough for her to get to him, "You okay?"

Vance was panting for air, his eyes wide and locked on the dead bodies in front of him. He looked like he was on the verge of a panic attack, but he managed to nod anyway, “Been better, been worse,” he replied shakily, “I, uh…you…is that offer for some training still open?”

Skye smiled at him, “Sure,” she agreed, “Help me get this moron down to the SUVs over there and I’ll take you back to the Cocoon to get started.”

“Great,” he thanked her, “That’s…great.”

Levitating Kebo, Vance lifted the three of them off the building and down to the abandoned HYDRA SUVs.  Skye made sure to zip tie Kebo’s hands and feet before slamming the back door on him and gesturing for Vance to get in the passenger’s seat. She took one last look down the street to where the Avengers were all racing to the building she’d just been on and sighed. Steve deserved better than the secrets she’d be forced to keep from him. Sure he knew about her powers now, but she wasn’t sure she could tell him anything else. She wanted nothing more than to return to his side and stay there for the rest of forever, but for now that just wasn’t possible.

With a weary, resigned sigh, Skye pulled herself into the driver’s seat, started the engine, and pulled away.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woot! Okay, that was my first published action scene, what did you all think? Good, bad, needs improvement? Let me know in the comments below. And if anyone wants to know how I have Vance pictured (he's a real superhero from the comics, though not an Inhuman like I'm pretending for the sake of the story) look up Dave Franko. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	6. Fury is Not a Grinch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye returns from battle and goes about healing herself. In the middle of a Christmas-chick-flick marathon Fury shows up and proves that he does have a heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew! Bet you guys didn't think I would post today! It was a near thing, today has been crazy, but thankfully this story is fully written, it just needed a few tweaks to get it ready for publishing. This chapter is the first one that has the same POV as the chapter before, but that's mostly because this was meant to be part of the previous chapter. But then that chapter got too long and had to be split into two which resulted in this. It's a bit of a filler chapter, but it has a bit of information about Skye and how she deals with being injured. (I also enjoy writing her interacting with Fury, so that had to appear here too). 
> 
> Hope you all enjoy!

The drive back to the Cocoon took barely fifteen minutes considering that everyone had gone to ground during the attack, and Skye spent most of it trying not to feel the gaping hole in her shoulder or the cracks in her ribs.  Parking in the nearly vacant underground parking lot, Skye stepped out of the SUV and did what she could to help Vance to unload Kebo from the back of the seat. She guided him to the holding rooms that had recently been installed so they could drop Kebo off before heading to medical.

As they walked she provided him with a quick verbal tour, not stopping long enough to actually show him anything.  She rolled her eyes as she noticed Vance kept looking worriedly at her “I’ve had worse,” she told him after another not-so-secretive glance at the bloody wound, “And I promise we’re headed to the infirmary right now.”

“But how are you still able to walk?” Vance seemed both impressed and concerned by her nonchalance, “I mean, not that I’m a wimp or anything, but I don’t think I would have been able to do what you did today let alone still be capable of walking myself to the infirmary.”

The clear hero-worship in his voice brought her head around to look at him. Finding that his expression matched his tone was a bit of a surprise, though she shrugged it off. She remembered feeling the same about May when she'd first met the woman, "It’s what I’ve been trained to do,” she explained, “Add that to the fact that I have an accelerated healing factor…” she trailed off and shrugged her good shoulder.

They walked in silence for a few steps before he looked at her, “Will you teach me?” he was suddenly vibrating with eagerness and anxiousness.

“Do you want to learn?” she asked, glancing over at him and scrutinizing his expression and the vibrations he was giving off as they moved. When he slowly nodded she gave a small nod back, “Then we can teach you," wanting to learn was the first step after all, "Do you have anyone who’s going to notice you’re missing? Friends? Family?”

Vance’s face dimmed, “No,” he shook his head, the vibrating excitement fading, “No family, no friends…well there’s Froggy, but she comes and goes so frequently she wouldn’t notice if I wasn’t around.”

Sensing the deep loneliness in her new recruit Skye placed a hand on his shoulder, glad he was on her uninjured side, but wincing internally as it pulled all the same, “I grew up an orphan too,” she murmured, “SHIELD was the first family I ever got to keep, we can be that for you too if you’ll let us.”

They arrived at the infirmary before Vance could muster a response, “Hey doc,” she greeted one of the newest doctors stationed at the Cocoon. Sara was an Inhuman with the ability to sense and heal wounds who had struggled to control her abilities until Skye had found her a few months back. Once she'd finally found control they'd all come to realize how much her abilities drained her energy and personal health. Now she kept them mostly to herself save for the occasional life threatening wound.

Sara glanced up from her desk and frowned as she took in the blood seeping through Skye’s leather jacket, “What did you do this time?” she sighed resignedly. She was already rising to her feet and reaching for a nearby pair of latex gloves as she spoke,  looking as if she was finally accepting that she worked with a bunch of danger-loving, adrenaline-seeking, injury-collecting people.

“This is Vance,” Skye sidestepped the question by introducing their newest Inhuman addition with a knowing smile, “He’s telekinetic and using his abilities too much too fast seems to bring on headaches and nosebleeds, could you have a look at him to make sure he’s okay before I sick one of the Koenigs on him?”

Rolling her eyes, Sara turned to one of her assistants, “Duncan,” she called catching the attention of the tall, beanpole looking thirty something, “Take Mr…”

“Astrovik,” Vance supplied with a nervous smile and a small wave.

“Mr. Astrovik and perform a standard Inhuman intake check-up. Pay attention to his brain scans if you would,” Sara grabbed Skye’s uninjured arm and propelled her over to one of the medical beds, "I'll be taking a look at our oh-so-fearless leader over here while you do."

Duncan nodded, pushing his thick glasses up his nose and offering Vance a grin, “If you’ll come right over here Mr. Astro—“

“Vance is fine,” Vance waved off the formality, “So, you got powers too?”

Accepting the offer to use Vance’s first name, Duncan smiled and nodded again, his enthusiasm nearly radiating from him, “I’m an empath,” he answered, “Did I hear that you're telekinetic?”

Skye zoned their conversation out as Sara proceeded to help her out of her leather jacket, “Ow,” she grumbled once it was finally free. Sara gave her a look that Skye had learned to read as you-did-this-to-yourself-so-don’t-complain and simply took a pair of scissors to the front of her shirt, “Man,” Skye whined, “I really liked this shirt too.”

A small twitch of amusement on Sara’s lips was the only response she received, “What happened?” the doctor asked as she began cleaning the area around the wound.

“Uh,” Skye winced as the cloth Sara was using came a little too close to the bullet hole, “The bullet’s still in there I think,” she tried to make sure the doctor understood how uncomfortable and painful it was without actually using the words.

Humming an acknowledgement, Sara nodded briefly, shooting her a knowing look out of the corner of her eyes, “It is, but I can hardly tell where the wound is through all the blood, hence,” she lifted the blood-stained cloth to finish her sentence, “And you didn’t answer my question.”

Sighing and focusing on distancing herself from the pain Skye stared vacantly across the infirmary, “Some crazy-pants dude in a Santa suit built himself a giant metal snowman, a bunch of robotic, flying elves that dropped present bombs, and reindeer that shot bullets from their antlers.”

Sara stilled for a moment, staring at her as if trying to decide if she should believe her or not, “And you were shot by one of these…reindeer?”

Starting to laugh at the disbelief in Sara’s voice Skye winced when it pulled at her bruised ribs, “No,” she denied, “I was shot by Kebo, one of the HYDRA agents that decided to show up and join the party.”

Setting down the bloodied cloth, Sara shook her head as she reached for a pair of pliers/tongs/metal forceps/medical-device-that-will-pull-out-the-bullet-and-hurt-a-ton, “And where were the Avengers during this…party? It sounds like something they should have been handling,” she paused inches away from the wound, tool in hand, to give Skye a look, “I can numb the area if you—“

“You know I don’t like pain meds,” Skye shook her head, “Just do it,” she grumbled, eyeing the metal tool as it drew closer, “And who do you think I was rescuing?” she grit her teeth as the prongs on the whatever-it-was pushed into the bullet hole.

The sickening sound of blood and muscle being pushed around seemed to fill her senses, but a few seconds later there was an odd sort of painful relief as Sara pulled out with the mangled bullet in her grip. Blinking and concentrating on taking a few deep steadying breaths, Skye tried not to let the pain make her pass out.

“ _You_ were rescuing the _Avengers_?” Sara raised an eyebrow at her as she turned from dropping the bullet in some metal pan.

Skye smirked as best she could considering the pain, “Saved Winter Soldier from being abducted by HYDRA, caught Hawkeye as he was dropped from the sky, and had a fun conversation about smashing with the Hulk,” she recounted, shifting uncomfortably in place.

Silently studying her for a moment, Sara eventually spoke, “I could heal that for you if you’d like,” she offered, gesturing to the wound.

Already shaking her head Skye gave her a thankful grin, “I’m good,” she waved the offer away, “Just clean and bandage me up and I can get out of your hair and get started on my own healing.”

“That’s going to be a lot of food,” Sara commented as she reached for another cloth to finish cleaning the wound.

Humming in agreement Skye winced as the wound was cleaned but otherwise held as still as possible, the pain was growing more tolerable with each passing second, “I’m sure I can find something.”

“You always do,” Sara agreed.

Vance and Duncan appeared a few minutes later as Sara was bandaging Skye’s shoulder, “She gonna live doc?” Vance asked, the smile clear in his voice.

Rolling her eyes in mock irritation at Skye, Sara nodded, “She’ll have to eat a few truckloads of food to heal it, but she’ll be fine,” she finished what she was doing before turning to look a Vance, “One thing you’ll discover about Agent Skye is that she has a knack for escaping certain death by the skin of her teeth only to be perfectly healed a day or two later. A gunshot wound?” Sara waved her hand and shook her head, “It’s nothing; she’ll be right as rain by tomorrow, if not this evening.”

“And on that note,” Skye hopped down from the medical bed gingerly, “You cleared to go kid?”

Vance nodded, “Yep, Doc D says I’m good.”

Arching an eyebrow Skye looked at Duncan to get the rest of the story. Duncan chuckled and shrugged, “He just needs to exercise his gift a little more and make sure not to over extend it too soon,” he tilted his head, “nothing we haven’t seen before.”

Nodding once Skye offered both doctors a warm smile, “Thank you both,” she said, “Now if you’ll excuse us, we need to get this kid a lanyard and then reintroduce him to his soulmate.”

“Angel?” Vance perked up.

Smirking at Sara and Duncan, Skye simply led the way out of the infirmary and to the lie-detector room. Sure enough David Koenig (and how weird was it that her base got its own Koenig?)was already standing ready outside the room. He did not look all that pleased that Vance was already so deep in the base without a lanyard but he knew not to say anything about it at the moment.

“David,” she greeted with a smile, “This is Vance Astrovik, if you would give him the lanyard interview and then escort him to wherever Angel is I would really appreciate it,” she batted her eyes playfully at the older man, “I would take him myself but, well,” she gestured to her shoulder, “I got a little damaged during an adventure with the Avengers and I’m not really dressed to wander the halls,” she glanced down at the bare skin that was covered only by the black bra she’d put on this morning (it was probably ruined now, yet another casualty to today's adventure).

To David’s credit his eyes never wavered from her face, though they did widen, “The Avengers?” he repeated.

Vance lit up, “Yeah, dude, you should have seen her! She was totally holding her own out there! She’s just as awesome as any of the Avengers!”

Davit looked over at Vance with an intrigued expression, (as the one Koenig who was just as impressed with the Avengers as with Coulson he was a bit of an anomaly but still easy enough to distract) “Really,” his intrigue came through in his voice.

Carefully making her escape while David began grilling Vance about what had happened, Skye breathed a sigh of relief when she had finally escaped the Koenig’s grasp. Just as she’d begun the climb to her room from the communal area she jumped as her phone began singing _Somebody’s Watching Me_. Sighing as she pulled the phone free she answered the call, “Yes David?”

“You’re that sure he’ll pass?” David didn’t even bother questioning how she knew it was him.

“Yes,” she answered simply, barely resisting the urge to roll her eyes as she started down the hall towards her privet room, “And when he does, please help him find Angel, they’re soulmates.”

David gasped, “Soulmates?” he echoed, a sudden excitement taking over his voice, “Why didn’t you say so?” and not even a second later he hung up.

Few would have ever guessed that the Koenigs were hopeless romantics, she thought as she smiled to herself a little. Opening her bedroom door she stepped inside and closed the door, taking a moment to simply decompress from the stress of the battle. Her chest ached with a longing that nearly took her breath away to be with her soulmate right now instead of alone. Again. On Christmas Eve.

Sighing she shook herself and went about gathering the necessary items for a nice long shower. Nearly an hour later (it was a long,  _warm_ shower, since no one else in the complex was showering at four in the afternoon and, as such, a rare treat she felt she’d _earned_ ) she exited the bathroom. Her hair was dried with its natural curl and she’d put on a minimal amount of makeup and dressed in her favorite Captain America sweatshirt (the black one with his shield printed on the front…and yeah, maybe the fact that her soulmate _was_ Captain America had something to do with her wardrobe choice but she was trying not to dwell), a pair of charcoal grey yoga pants and her fluffy black boot-slippers.

Shuffling back down to the empty and dimly lit communal area (an open floor-plan space that contained a kitchen, dining area, a small entertainment area—not as big as the one on the floor below this one—and a few shelves of books) she moved silently into the kitchen space to inspect the refrigerator for food.

She contemplated the inside of the refrigerator before settling on cooking up the two bags of frozen ravioli in the freezer.  While she waited for those to boil she started munching on a bag of baby carrots and the left over apples in the fridge.  Humming Jingle Bells to herself absently, she drained the water off the large pot of ravioli and added the whole bottle of tomato sauce she’d uncovered to the contents of the pot.

Moving to the vacant couch in front of the entertainment system, she snatched up the remote and searched for a cheesy Christmas chick-flick. Settling on the Hallmark channel she dug into her food, pausing only once to grab a large glass of water.

She remembered the first time she’d been injured this badly. She’d been locked up in the infirmary with Jemma for hours before she managed to sneak out to steal her way through several sandwiches and everyone else’s left overs. She’d been terrified by the copious amounts of food she’d consumed, as had everyone else, (most people don’t eat that much in several days let alone in one sitting, _let alone_ some as injured as she was) but after Jemma had dragged her back to the infirmary for testing Skye had simply laid down, closed her eyes and fallen asleep. When she’d woken up the next morning the bullet holes, bruises and cuts had all been gone.

She supposed it made some sort of odd sense, considering what her mother’s gift had been. Jai Ying had been able to live for years off of other people’s life-energies and she’d had an accelerated healing factor as an added benefit. Skye had apparently inherited this gift along with her own seismic capabilities, but, as an upside, her healing factor didn’t involve draining the life from other people. Instead she just ate more food than a small army and rested. Jemma had revealed to her over the next few weeks of study that at the rate her body was healing itself she was in for a _very_ long and hopefully happy life.

She finished the pot of ravioli and rose to her feet during a commercial break between movies to gather the necessary items for sandwiches. Turning back to the couch she jumped when she found Nick Fury sitting there, looking for all the world as if he’d been there for hours instead of just seconds.

He raised an eyebrow at her, “You eat more than your soulmate does,” he commented with a hint of amusement in his voice and a small quirk to his lips.

Rolling her eyes Skye finished her mission and brought the sandwich fixings to the coffee table, “Want one?” she ignored his comment politely.

Shaking his head, he watched her compile her sandwiches in silence for a moment before speaking, “Why do you keep running from your soulmate?”

Sandwich halfway to her opened mouth Skye froze, “What?” she cautiously questioned.

“You heard me,” he didn’t play her game.

Skye sighed and shrugged her uninjured shoulder, “I can’t tell him about SHIELD or Coulson, and I wasn’t going to tell him about my…abilities, so what point is there to creating a bond if it will never be fully complete?” she took a bite of her sandwich and pointedly turned her focus to the screen.

Fury allowed her to eat in silence for the rest of the second movie. Once it was over and just as the opening credits were beginning to roll for the third movie he switched the television off, “Clean up,” he told her, “You need to come with me.”

Arching an eyebrow at him, Skye deliberated for a moment whether or not to listen to his orders. Technically she didn’t have to as he was neither her Commanding Officer nor her Director, but there was still something about him that demanded respect. Deciding to assuage her curiosity, she did as he instructed and cleaned up her food mess. She’d eaten all she could anyway.  That done he nodded for her to follow him which she did without another word.

He led her out of the communal area and down the stairs into the parking garage where he indicated she should get in on the passenger’s side of a fast looking black car she’d never seen before. Playing along, she silently rolled her eyes and got in, switching the heat on as soon as he started the car.

He gave her a look for messing with his controls but she smirked, “If you’re going to kidnap me, I’m going to at least make sure I’m comfortable,” she told him.

“It’s Christmas Eve,” he stated a few minutes later as he pulled into traffic.

“ _Really_?” she gasped dramatically, “I had no idea!”

He shot her a look, though she thought it lost half of its potency because he was only able to use one eye, “So why were you alone?” he ignored her comments in favor of asking his own question.

Skye’s mouth snapped shut at the question, “Reasons,” she replied simply, pointedly looking out the window, no longer feeling up to chatting.

Fury grunted and grumbled something to himself she couldn’t decipher but otherwise stayed silent for the rest of the drive. Skye was surprised to feel his hand shaking her awake a while later; she hadn’t realized she’d fallen asleep.

Glancing around, she was curious to find that they were in an underground parking lot, “Where'r'ee?” she mumbled sleepily.

There was no answer, and when she turned to see why she could only sigh with exasperation as she realized it was because he was already exiting the car. Frowning and grumbling to herself about arrogant former-directors, she narrowed her eyes and paused a moment before following his lead. Stepping out into the cold underground parking garage was like being hit in the face with a bucket of ice water. It woke her right up and she took a shuddering deep breath to help clear her head.

Glancing around then, she caught Fury’s eye as he gestured for her to follow him to an elevator.  Confused, she did as he suggested and watched as he pressed the elevator button before reaching into his long coat.  Extracting his fingers a moment later she tilted her head in confusion as his hand pulled free with a red bow in its grasp. He smirked at her confusion and proceeded to pull the backing off the bow and stick the sticky part of the bow to the top of her head.

“You’re welcome,” he stated, as the elevator doors slid open, revealing an almost too-nice interior, “For your information,” he started conversationally, “The Avengers have been completely read in on SHIELD’s activities over the last few years,” his eye met hers with a gentle expression in it that she couldn’t quite read, “Including Coulson’s continued existence, and your role here at the Cocoon,” he added, “You don’t have to keep those secrets from him anymore. Just be yourself, let him do the rest.”

He gently shoved her into the elevator, “JARVIS, take her to the Communal Floor,” he ordered.

“It would be my pleasure sir,” an automated voice stated, making her jump and glance instinctively at the ceiling where the voice had come from.

The doors slid shut, closing Fury and his knowing smirk behind them and the elevator began a smooth ascension.  Skye could do nothing but stare at the elevator doors for several floors before she fully comprehended what was happening. She was in Avengers Tower. She was going to see Steve.

Her body froze at that thought.  Was it possible? Had Fury really…? But why had he…? Questions raced and swirled around in her head as her heartbeat began to pick up its pace. But out of all of the hundreds of thoughts racing around in her mind only one was constant:

She was going to see Steve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Six chapters down, one more to go. I'm also well into a Clint/Jemma sequel that will be coming out for New Years Eve (I couldn't help myself). A lot of the Coulson reunion stuff will be happening in that story rather than here, so stay tuned! Let me know what you think in the comments below!
> 
> Thanks!


	7. Steve meets Skye

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And, the moment you've all been waiting for...drum roll please!.....The conclusion of the Steve/Skye story!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Last chapter! Hopefully it lives up to expectations! 
> 
> Read on and enjoy!

Groaning internally as he dropped down onto one of the cozy couches on the Communal Floor, Steve shut his eyes for a moment. He listened silently as the rest of his team moved around the space chatting and laughing with one another. It was good to be home, surrounded by his friends, but he was tired. He couldn't seem to get enough rest these days. 

A flashing image of a blood soaked wound and long brunette hair had his eyes snapping open and his body sitting up. He shook his head wearily, trying to shake the image away before he could lose himself in what ifs and concern. Ever since Skye had left the battle-zone with a bullet hole in her shoulder and the large goon who’d put it there, Steve had been unable to close his eyes without imagining her dead or dying somewhere.

Logically he knew she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself (he’d spent hours after their mission and excursion to the children’s hospital last night going over the file Fury had given him about her)and that her own base was likely not far away (the exact location was still unknown and, according to Fury, was to remain that way until or unless Skye decided otherwise) and she would more than likely receive medical help once she arrived, but that didn’t stop him from worrying.

“She’ll be fine,” Bucky stated as he moved to sit on the coffee table in front of Steve.

Giving a low sigh Steve shifted in his seat and contained the twinges of pain that radiated through his body. The fight hadn’t been easy on him, but he had definitely been worse off; he and everyone else knew he would be fine in a few days, “I’m sure she will be Buck, but that doesn’t stop me from worrying about her,” he replied.

Bucky nodded, glancing over to where Darcy was busy chatting with Tony, reminding Steve without a word that he understood (Darcy was a fairly capable woman herself), “She kind of saved my skin out there today,” he finally spoke, slowly turning back to Steve with a slowly growing smirk, “That’s some woman you got there Punk,” he shook his head, “Don’t know how you got so lucky.”

Eyebrows pulling down with concern Steve tilted his head, “She saved you?” he repeated.

“Yeah,” his friend nodded, “Bunch of thugs popped up out of nowhere, I might have managed to fight them all off by myself but I would have walked away with more than a few cuts and bruises to show for my trouble,” he spoke softly, fiddling with the tumbler in his hand (even though he couldn’t get drunk he still enjoyed the flavor and burn of the whiskey and Stark always had the best), “She blew their guns to bits and took on more than her fair share of the guys.”

Studying his friend for a moment Steve slouched back into the couch with a sigh, “You think it was HYDRA?” he inquired.

Bucky hummed noncommittedly, “Whoever they were, she knew their leader. He’s the one who shot her, and one of the guys she dragged off with her,” he shook his head as if waking up from a memory, “But that’s not the point,” he went on, “The point, is that she saved me, saved all of us even; if she can manage that, she can manage to save herself.  Worrying about her isn’t going to do anyone any good,” he kicked at Steve’s booted foot, “It’s Christmas Eve, time to relax, enjoy the friends and family around you,” he gestured to the rest of the Avengers, “Bet you never thought we’d wind up _here_ seventy years later didya punk?”

Rolling his eyes and smiling a little, Steve scanned over his team, his family, “Can’t say as though the thought that I’d wake up from being frozen nearly seventy years in the future ever crossed my mind,” he shook his head.  Lifting his chin in an acknowledging nod as Sam approached them he smiled at his other friend, “Having fun?” he asked.

“Stark knows how to throw a party,” he confirmed, his eyes locking on his soulmate (and hadn’t that surprised everyone when the two of them came clean? Steve had been right there when Natasha and Sam has said their first words to each other, but neither of them had given any indication that the moment had been different from any other) where she stood with Clint on the other side of the room, “Even Natasha can relax at these things,” he commented, slowly pulling his eyes from the redhead's form.

“Natasha’s in her home space,” Bucky stated, “Anyone who is stupid enough to intrude in that will have the unfortunate privilege of seeing her go from relaxed to cut throat milliseconds before they wind up dead. You don’t invade a widow’s nest without being prepared to die.”

Barely loud enough to be heard over the sound of the Christmas music playing from the speakers all over the room, the elevator dinged, “Was that the elevator?” Steve mumbled from where his head had fallen back against the back of the couch.

No one answered. A beat later a sharp nudge to his side from Sam came simultaneous with a firm kick to his foot from Bucky. Frowning with a small grunt at the impact to his side, Steve peeled his eyes open (fortunately he hadn’t seen the bloody images he’d expected this time as he’d shut his eyes, just the plain darkness behind his eyelids), “What?” he grumbled. Only neither of his companions were looking at him, as silence fell on the room save the holiday music still playing, Steve realized everyone seemed to be staring at the elevator.

Eyebrows furrowing with confusion at the stunned expressions of his friends, he turned his head to see what they were looking at. His heart stopped. His breath caught. His blood froze and the whole world seemed to narrow. Because there, standing in the middle of the elevator with a bow on her head and a picture of his shield on her shirt, stood his soulmate.

Before he even consciously made the decision to move, he was on his feet and halfway to the elevator, his eyes drinking in her small form (apparently seeing his shield on her brought out all sorts of possessive and protective feelings, who knew?). He knew his expression was likely one of surprise and awe, but he couldn’t find the will or ability to mask it. Skye’s own expression was one of wide eyed anxiousness and the nervous glint in her eyes brought him up short, bringing him to a stop several feet from the elevator she had yet to leave.

Heart pounding in his ears, Steve watched and waited as she stared at him. Unsure of what was running through her mind he shifted with his own anxiousness and swallowed past the knot in his throat. Skye blinked at his movement and suddenly seemed to come to a decision.  She took a cautious step forward and then another until she was standing a few feet from him (too far away, it was still too far away).  Her eyes scanned the room briefly with a tactical glint he recognized until, seemingly reassured that she could locate all the exits and threats in the room, she turned back to look at him.

Her hand thrust out at him suddenly, “I’m Skye,” she introduced herself, “Which Fury tells me you already know, and you know, you called me that after the…fight… but I thought an official introduction would be…nice…” she trailed off, her mouth snapping shut.

The urge to touch her was nearly overwhelming, but he forced it back a little (he was worried if he didn’t his hand would fly up too quick and scare her off)and offered her a smile, “Steve,” he returned, taking her smaller hand in his (at a much more reasonable pace) and squeezing.

Her bright brown eyes stared up at him in silence and Steve stared back with awestruck disbelief (he was standing in front of his _soulmate!_ ). Then, all at once, something inside him sparked to life. An urgent need to be as close to her as physically possible nearly overwhelmed him and he responded by instinctively tightening his hand and gently tugging her closer. Skye gasped at little at his abrupt movement and her free hand rose to steady herself by catching on his waist. 

The compulsion to feel her lips under his, her skin beneath his fingers, her taste on his tongue took over and he ducked his head closer to hers. He could see his need reflected in her chocolate eyes; all he could think about was what it was going to feel like to finally,  _finally_ kiss his soulmate. 

And then his lips met hers.

Sparks raced between them from every point of contact; it was better than he’d ever dreamed! Nothing he’d ever experienced in his life could even come close to comparing to the perfection of this moment. He shifted a little to release her hand so he could slide his hand into her hair to tilt her head back a little. He heard her give a small hum of approval and felt the gasp that left her lips as he gently prodded them with his tongue.  As he deepened their kiss, he found himself falling deeper, as if his soul were melding gloriously to hers until he couldn’t tell where she ended and he began.

It was only the beginning, he knew. Bonding fully with Skye could wait until they were more comfortable with each other; until there wasn't an audience or clothes, or so many questions. But this? This would do for now.

Slowly pulling away as he felt her gasping for breath in between kisses, he moved back enough to stare down at her upturned face. Her eyes were still shut and her lips were red from his kisses and they pulled up in the corners in a small smile. Something in him surged forward with longing and desperation. He wanted this. He wanted  _her_. He wanted to keep her here, with him and smiling for the rest of their lives. He buried the urge as it came and simply watched silently as her eyelashes fluttered before slowly lifting to reveal a pair of beautiful chocolate brown eyes.

“If you tell me you only kissed me because there was mistletoe hanging around I might hit you,” she breathed, her eyes flashing with humor.

His lips pulled up in an amused smile as her eyes widened with the realization of what she’d just said.  The surprise in her gaze pulled a laugh from deep in his chest, “No,” he chuckled, “No mistletoe was needed,” his hand in her hair slipped free to brush some hair back from her face tenderly, “I just really wanted to kiss you,” his lips quirked teasingly, “and had this really odd feeling that if I didn’t do it now you might run again.”

She winced, “Okay, fair enough,” she grimaced apologetically, “I’m sorry for running off like did,” she went on, “But you have to understand—“

“I do,” he interrupted with a warm grin, “But that doesn’t matter right now,” he slid his hand down her arm to weave his fingers with hers, “unless you’re still planning to run again?”

Laughing lightly, Skye surprised him by tugging on their knotted hands to pull him back closer to her. Turning he glanced down at her in time to see her lifting on her toes before her lips were on his. He felt the slightly chilly fingers of her free hand on his jaw, holding him in place while she kissed him for several moments before pulling back with a soft smile, licking lightly at her lips as if to chase the taste of him lingering there, “I wasn’t planning on it,” she shook her head, “Besides, the only viable exit right now is the window over there,” she quirked her head at the window wall, “and while I could probably survive the fall, it wouldn’t be my first choice.”

Steve felt his eyebrows lift with surprise, his brain finally rebooting after every thought had been chased away by her kiss, “You could survive the fall?” he repeated.

Skye nodded a little, her thumb tracing small circles on his jaw for a moment before it slid down his neck to rest on his chest over his slightly faster than normal heartbeat, “Yeah, I can send enough seismic waves at the ground to keep myself from splatting,” she shrugged.

“Like how you caught me?” Clint spoke up, breaking into the private little world he and Skye had been in.

Surprisingly Skye didn’t pull away from him at the reminder of their audience, instead she stepped closer, her hand moving from his chest to wrap around his bicep to hug his arm to her, “Yeah,” she agreed, turning to face Clint, “just like that but from the falling side.”

He looked impressed, “Cool,” he nodded his head thoughtfully, obviously picturing all the ways he could use that gift to his advantage.

“So you’re the infamous Skye,” Tony stated, obviously done with giving them the moment to themselves. He moved from where he stood leaning against the bar nearby until he was a few feet away from them, his face one of scrutiny Steve recognized as his I’m-incredibly-interested-in-what-you-do expression he normally got when he encountered new and complex technology.

Skye lifted a shoulder, “I’m the infamous Skye,” she confirmed uncertainly.

Tony continued to study her for a moment with a thoughtful expression before making a small grunt, “You’ll have to tell me how you wiped yourself off the map so cleanly sometime,” he decided, “I can’t find anything about you or any members of your team, not even a random selfie. It’s very impressive.”

“Oh that’s easy enough to explain,” she replied with a quick smile up at Steve, “I just set up some code to erase or blur any images or video with our features and stored all of our personal information on the most secure servers in the world.”

An eyebrow lifted mockingly, “ _SHIELD_ servers?” he didn’t sound impressed.

A slow smile spread Skye’s lips and she leant her head forward a little as if she were about to share a secret, “No,” she shook her head, “ _Your_ servers.”

Everything about Tony seemed to freeze at her words. He blinked, opened his mouth to speak as his shoulders turned as if he were going to speak to someone else but his eyes remained locked on hers. His mouth shut and his eyes narrowed, “ _My_ servers?” he repeated, sounding impressed despite himself.

“Couldn’t think of a safer place to keep SHIELD’s information,” his soulmate stated.

“I think I would _notice_ if someone was storing information on my—JARVIS!” he shouted, spinning on his heel, “I’m impressed,” he tossed over his shoulder as he walked away, “And I don’t say that very often.”

Skye watched him go with an amused smile on her lips before looking up at Steve, “It was only temporarily,” she told him once Tony was out of earshot, “Just until I could get our own servers back up and running.”

Steve glanced down at her carefully, “So that information isn’t still there?” he checked.

“Nope,” she answered, “I just figured it would give him something to do. He’s still got a few holes in his firewalls I use every now and then when I want to know what he’s up to, so I thought maybe if I send him diving through his code he might find those holes and fill them before some random and less…considerate hacker finds them,” she smiled playfully up at him before turning and pointing at Sam, “And you’re Sam Wilson right? The Falcon?”

Sam stepped forward a little, his charming smile sliding into place, “Yes ma’am,” he nodded to her.

“You know Antoine Tripplet?” she inquired.

A surprised look flashed across Sam’s face, “He’s my cousin on my dad’s side,” he shared, “His mother was my dad’s little sister before she passed.”

Skye nodded as if she already knew this, “Trip is a member of my team,” she explained her question, “Saved my life a few times,” she offered him a smile, “Nice guy, pretty down to earth for a Legacy.”

Slowly bobbing his head Sam hummed a little, “Yeah, his grandparents took him in after his parents died and we saw each other a lot less after that, but I think I remember something about him being one of the Howling Commando’s grandkids.”

“Gabe Jones,” Skye supplied, “His grandfather’s Commando kit actually saved my team back when HYDRA was doing it’s uprising thing,” her eyes shifted over to stare at Natasha who was eyeing her with her intimidating expression, “It’s Natasha right?” she stated with a slight tilt of her head to Natasha, seeming completely unbothered or concerned by the expression that had made even the most violent of men turn and run.

Natasha said nothing for a few moments as she continued to stare darkly at Skye but Skye simply stared back. Finally, when Steve couldn’t take the stare anymore he shifted pulling a knowing smirk from Natasha, “Who trained you?” she finally questioned.

Skye’s hand in his tightened a little but the smile on her face remained unaffected, “My first SO was Grant Ward,” Clint growled from his perch on the back of the nearest couch which brought her attention to him for a moment before she continued, “after he went HYDRA, Melinda May was made my new SO, but I’ve also done some training with Coulson, Bobbi Morse, Lance Hunter and a few of my Caterpillars who’ve studied other martial arts.”

“Bobbi?” Clint repeated, “did you say Bobbi?” he sat up suddenly alert, “As in Bobbi Morse? Mockingbird?”

A laugh followed his series of questions that had even Natasha quirking her lips in amusement, “Yes, the one and the same,” she agreed, “And you don’t need to worry, I’ve learned to take her and Hunter’s complaints about other people with a grain of salt. I’m sure you’re a perfectly nice human being.”

The patronizing tone in her voice had Clint narrowing his eyes at her, “What did you hear? What did she tell you?” he slid off the back of the couch, “You know what? It doesn’t matter! My brother left her sister, I get it, he’s a jerk, but frankly Laura is doing just fine without him. Bobbi seriously needs to _move on_ and quit blaming me for Barney’s issues! I’m doing what I can to take care of Barney’s family, but sometimes I can’t be there all the—“

“Actually I was referring to that incident in Monaco where you and Hunter—“ Skye interrupted but was cut off by Clint’s eyes widening and frantically waving of his arms for her to stop talking. She smirked at him and shared a look with Natasha that told Steve that the two of them would get along just fine.

Turning her head Skye looked up at him with such warmth he couldn’t resist the pull to steal another kiss. Pulling back she hummed with contentment and smiled softly. He was about to kiss her again when Rhodey’s amused voice interrupted, “You going to introduce the rest of us Steve? Or do we have to introduce ourselves?”

Skye laughed a little at Steve’s sigh of frustration and he couldn’t stop the small smile that rose to his lips even if he’d wanted to, “Of course,” he murmured, “Skye, Colonel James Rhodes, codename War Machine,” he indicated the man who’d spoken.

Rhodey smirked and stepped forward to shake Skye’s hand (which unfortunately meant she had to pull her free from his to return the gesture), “Nice to finally meet you,” he nodded once.

“You too Colonel,” she returned.

 Rhodey backed up a few steps and gestured to Bruce and Pepper where they sat chatting on another sofa, “That’s Bruce Banner and Pepper Potts, aka the Hulk and Tony’s life-manager.”

Skye snickered as Tony protested Pepper’s title loudly from where he was fiddling with his tablet across the room,  nodding and waving at both the people indicated, “You must be Thor,” she spoke to Thor as he approached with Jane by his side.

“Aye,” Thor nodded with a small smile, “I have heard the tales of your adventures with the Lady Sif,” he stated, his eyes holding a reserved expression in them.

Steve frowned as Skye tensed a little and her smile became a little less friendly, “Am I to take it you agree with her belief that I and people like me are abominations to be exterminated?”

Eyes widening a little Thor glanced over at Steve before shaking his head vigorously, “I do not!” he vehemently disagreed, “While I do believe your people could pose a threat to the humans of this world, I am content with the precautions you have already begun to take to protect those who are not blessed with the gifts of your people.”

Needing to do something to help remove some of the tension from Skye’s form Steve could think of nothing else to do but to reach out again to wrap his hand around hers reassuringly, “Fury has told us some of what you do with the Inhumans and Enhanced at SHIELD,” he murmured, “It sounds very impressive.”

Skye took a slow deep breath before relaxing into Steve’s side once more, “It hasn’t been easy,” she admitted, “But for the most part my people just want to help or live out their lives feeling and being as normal as possible,” she turned her head a little to look at Jane, “I’m afraid I recognize your face but I can’t remember your name,” she pointedly changed the topic.

Jane smiled with an understanding glint in her eyes, “I’m Jane Foster—“

“Right!” Skye exclaimed, “Fitz and Simmons are big fans of your work!” she stepped forward, once more releasing Steve’s hand, and held out her hand with a warm smile, “It’s nice to meet you, FitzSimmons are going to flip when they find out I got to meet you before they did.”

Looking puzzled but amused by Skye’s eagerness Jane tilted her head and shook the hand offered, “FitzSimmons?” she repeated curiously.

Skye waved her hand, “Yeah, Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons,” she elaborated a little, “They’re both original members of Coulson’s team.”

Oddly enough the names brought both Clint and Tony back into the conversation, “Leo Fitz?” Tony questioned, “The engineer that invented the Mouse Hole?” when Skye nodded, her lips pressing together with surprised agreement, Tony grinned, “You have to bring him by sometime!” he declared, “I was going to try and recruit him away from SHIELD years ago but then SHIELD went crazy and he just...disappeared…” he trailed off and his eyes narrowed suspiciously, “That was you,” it wasn’t a question, and the tone of resignation held a hint of impressed amusement.

Shrugging Skye nodded, “Had to do it to keep us off HYDRA and the Army’s radar.”

“Army?” Steve echoed in confusion.

Turning to look at him she nodded, “Yeah, for a while there Talbot was pretty hardcore about trying to track any remaining SHIELD agents down,” she shrugged, “I poofed us from the internet which made it harder for him to find us,” she tilted her head then thoughtfully, “We’re cool with the Army now though. Coulson’s pretty good at worming his way into the good graces of even the most stubborn people.”

“Tell me about it,” Clint muttered, “And did you say Jemma Simmons?”

Skye arched an eyebrow at him, “Yeah,” she confirmed, “Why?”

“No reason,” he shook his head quickly but it was clear there was more to the story than that.

He was saved from further interrogation by Pietro suddenly appearing in front of Skye. To her credit she didn’t even blink when he appeared, most people at least jumped when Pietro used his abilities around them, (even now Pietro got a kick out of startling the Avengers when he could, with the exception of Natasha, she’d nearly stabbed him the one time he tried, needless to say he didn’t try again); Skye however simply smiled, “You must be Pietro,” she nodded to him.

Pietro said nothing as he stared at her for a long minute. He glanced over at Steve briefly before looking back at her, “You are not bothered by my speed,” he stated though the confusion was evident in his eyes and his voice.

“Should I be?” she sounded equally confused.

Uncertain, Pietro shifted in place, his fingers tapping rapidly against his thigh, “Most are…unnerved when I use it around them,” he frowned, “Even Strucker did not like me using it around him.”

Shoulders pulling back, Skye’s voice took on a strength that wasn’t there before, “Strucker is lucky Ultron got to him first,” Skye told him bluntly, “You have nothing to be ashamed of or worried about. I live with people who have gifts like yours, like ours,” she smiled at him, “One girl named Yo-Yo, codename Slingshot, has speed like you do, but is so named because she can’t stop running without slingshoting back to where she started running from,” she chuckled a little, “Doesn’t stop her from racing around though, she has a habit of forgetting the slingshot part of her ability.”

“It truly does not bother you?” Pietro seemed to feel the need to check.

Skye shook her head, “Not at all,” she stated firmly, “And if you ever feel the need to be somewhere other than here, you are more than welcome to come hang out with my team and I at the Cocoon whenever you like,” she glanced over his shoulder, “Wanda is welcome to come along as well if she wants to.”

The woman in question had been slowly drifting closer to Skye as time wore on, her head tilted and her eyes focused with an expression that told Steve she was trying to read Skye’s mind, “I cannot read you,” Wanda murmured a moment later as she came to a stop next to her brother, “Why?”

“Blindfold,” Skye answered simply before huffing a small laugh, “She’s a telepath on my team, her real name is Ruth; she taught me and my team how to shield our thoughts from her so that she doesn’t get overwhelmed with everything,” she hesitated, “I can let you in, if you’d prefer.”

Wanda contemplated this for a moment, her head tilting the other way curiously before she shook her head, “It is not often that I find someone I cannot read,” she said, “I would…like it if you did not let me in so easily.”

Skye nodded as if she’d expected this, “Let me know if that changes,” she smiled warmly, “Nice job out there today by the way,” she fiddled with the hem of her sweatshirt, “I’m not sure my makeshift shield could have held the explosion back for too long.”

“We had help,” Wanda’s shoulders relaxing more and more the longer she spoke to Skye, “There was another shield added to ours,” the question was obviously implied.

“Vance,” Skye acknowledged, “He’s a new Inhuman, and the newest Caterpillar in the Cocoon,” she glanced absently back at Steve with a small smile as she continued, “He’s a telekinetic who’s only figured out how to use his abilities to perform little magic tricks on the streets for money.”

The two women continued to chat for a moment but Steve found himself unable to hear them. His eyes were focused on Skye’s shoulder in confusion, he hadn’t noticed earlier, but Skye wasn’t moving like she still had a bullet hole in her arm, shouldn’t she be resting at least? From what he’d seen she’d certainly lost enough blood to keep her down for a few hours, and what about her ribs? He’d tackled her to the ground out there today (he’d felt bad about it but it was him or the bullets and frankly a cracked rib was easier to handle than a bunch of bullet holes) so she should be at least a little injured.

“Steve?” Skye’s voice brought him out of his musings and he shifted his eyes from her shoulder to her face to find her looking at him with some concern, “Everything okay?”

Wanda inhaled sharply as she seemed to read whatever he was thinking, but he voiced his thoughts before she could give them away, “You were shot today,” he murmured, his narrowed gaze on her shoulder before it lifted to meet her eyes, “but you don’t seem like…” he gestured vaguely at her and trailed off as he searched for the right words.

Seeming relieved for some reason Skye nodded, “Yeah, Kebo nailed me in the arm pretty good,” she confirmed, her hand lifted to pull aside the wide collar of her shirt (he was still trying not to think about what instincts seeing her wearing his shield provoked) to bare her injured shoulder to him. There was a bandage resting in place but she pulled it away to reveal a faint pink splotch where presumably the bullet hole had once been, “My mother was able to heal herself by draining the life energy from other people,” she explained, “And I inherited part of that ability. I don’t drain the life from other people to heal, I just eat a ton of food to fuel my bodies heightened healing abilities.”

“Define a ton,” Bucky spoke for the first time, suddenly melting from the crowd where he’d made himself invisible until now, “Because Steve, Thor and I have been known to pile it away at _every_ meal,” he gave her a small tilted smile from where he was slouched against the wall that housed the elevator doors.

“Well,” Skye said thoughtfully, “Tonight, I ate two full bags of ravioli and twelve ham, turkey, cheese sandwiches,” she winced, “Which makes me sound like a pig, but honestly I’m still a little hungry,” she tilted her head and smiled apologetically, though Steve didn’t know why, “And hey, congratulations on not being kidnapped today, by the way,” her hand lifted to wave at Bucky and his position in the Tower, obviously not impressed by his ability to just appear (even Steve hadn’t seen Bucky move until he’d spoken up, the Asset stealth training was a habit Bucky was still trying to break).

Bucky studied her for a moment before huffing a small chuckle, “Yeah, thanks for the help,” he pushed off the wall and sauntered over to her, “If you don’t mind my asking, what brought you to that section of the city anyway?”

Skye shrugged, seeming unconcerned by the prowling way Bucky was moving towards her even though it set Steve a little on edge, (the Soldier moved like that when he took over and while Bucky sometimes mimicked the movements he didn’t do it very often unless he was trying to intimidate someone), “Vance was doing a show when the creepy elves and their presents dropped in. We took a bunch of them out but the rest were all headed in your direction,” she shifted her weight unnecessarily but Steve noted that it would be easy for her to slide into a defensive position from this stance than before, so apparently she wasn’t as unbothered as she portrayed.

“And you just…decided to drop in?” Bucky prodded.

“Honestly?” Skye shook her head, “I wasn’t going to get involved, the Avengers have faced down worse and I didn’t want to be so close to Steve only to have to leave when it was all over.”

Bucky frowned, his eyes flicking to Steve and taking in his tense posture before moving back to Skye as he came to a stop a few feet in front of her, “So what changed?” Steve shifted, ready to jump in if the need arose, but Natasha was suddenly at his side, her hand on his arm stilling him.  He frowned at her but waited as she was suggesting.

“HYDRA,” Skye stated. Her answer sent a ripple through the room until all conversation had stopped to look at her.

“HYDRA?” Steve and Tony both echoed at the same time while Bucky’s face lost some of its color.

Frowning in confusion Skye nodded slowly, “Vance and I moved closer to assess the situation and I spotted Kebo and his men—“

“Who’s Kebo?” Natasha interrupted.

Skye shifted to see her, “The current HYDRA head’s second in command,” she explained, “He’s got a rap sheet longer than I am tall and all of it is violent. I knew if he was in the area something bad was about to happen,” she saw the looks being shared between the Avengers and moved across the floor to stand next to Steve again, though he had a feeling it had just as much to do with being able to see everyone as being near him, “Kebo’s been a problem for SHIELD for the last few years, he’s taken to hunting Inhumans and Enhanced and either forcing their compliance and making them work for HYDRA, or killing them. I suspect he was in the area looking for Vance or maybe even another Inhuman but took the opportunity provided by the chaos the snowman dude was creating to try and catch a bigger fish,” she shot Bucky an apologetic look.

“There was at least two dozen men there,” Clint stated, “Isn’t that a little overkill for one person?”

Skye was shaking her head long before he finished his question, “Vance is a telekinetic, he could have put up one hell of a fight. Had he felt threatened by Kebo and his men he could have easily taken them all out long enough to escape.”

“How did you know they were going after Bucky?” Steve asked then, his mind whirling with the what-ifs that could have gone wrong today. It wasn’t Bucky’s first mission with the team, but he was still new enough that Steve worried about him. He hadn’t kept him close today though, he’d though Bucky would be better off positioned somewhere else, and hadn’t paused in his own fighting to realize that his friend had needed help. He could have lost his best friend and his soulmate today.

Almost as if she sensed his inner turmoil, Skye’s hand slid into his and she squeezed reassuringly, “I took out a couple of HYDRA agents and stole a radio, they were talking about going after the Winter Soldier and how pleased Ward would be with their acquisition.”

“Ward?” Clint barked, his face darkening, “What does he have to do with this?”

Skye stilled as she stared at him before glancing around the rest of the room, “What exactly _do_ you know about the leadership of HYDRA?” she finally asked, the question was apparently rhetorical as she went on to answer Clint’s question, “He’s the current head of HYDRA,” she shook her head, “SHIELD managed to off all the heads of HYDRA a year or two ago, and HYDRA was crumbling apart, but then Ward went even further down the crazy train rails and pulled it back together with him at the helm. Kebo is his head in training, so to speak,” she took a deep breath and let it out to finish her story, “I heard them talking about taking you and…just because I couldn’t be with Steve for various reasons didn’t mean I didn’t care about him. You are his best friend,” she spoke to Bucky, “I couldn’t let them hurt you or him, not if there was something I could do to stop them.”

“So you jumped into the fight?” Bucky finished, “Just like that?”

Shrugging a little Skye nodded, “Just like that.”

Bucky stared at her calculatingly for another minute before the intensity in his gaze let up, “She’s definitely your soulmate punk,” he commented with a small smirk, “No self-preservation skills.”

Skye’s jaw dropped and her expression showed her faux offence, “I saved your life Barnes!” she retorted.

“Yeah,” the joking left Bucky’s face, “You did,” he held out his hand, “thanks.”

His soulmate didn’t even hesitate to take the proffered hand, but she did squeak in surprise when Bucky jerked her forward into a tight hug. Even with his enhanced hearing Steve could only just barely hear Bucky’s low whisper, “Take care of him,” before he let her go, “Come find me when you have a spare minute, I’ve got a few embarrassing Stevie stories to tell if you’re interested.”

“Am I ever!” Skye laughed, her face lighting up. 

Steve was about to step forward to claim his soulmate’s attention once more when a blur of red and white intercepted him, “I’m Darcy,” Darcy introduced herself as she approached, but she didn’t stop moving until her arms were wrapped around Skye in a warm hug, “And you and I are going to be best friends from this moment on!” she pulled back with a wide grin that was just so Darcy Steve couldn’t help but smile, “Bucky is my soulmate,” she explained, looping her arm through Skye’s and propelling her away, “and seeing as he and Steve are besties, that means you and I will be getting to know each other really well, so we might as well make our best friend status official!”

Feeling a warmth in his chest that was almost unfamiliar, Steve watched Skye laugh and trail after Darcy as the other woman waved her arms around as she chattered on, sharing her happy energy with the room.

“I have a feeling we’re going to regret the day those two ever met,” Bucky commented as he moved to bump shoulders with him.

Shaking his head Steve disagreed, “I can’t regret something like that,” he murmured, feeling overwhelmed for a minute, “Right now…I have everything I’ve ever wanted,” he laughed a little in amazement, “I…” he trailed off at a loss for words to explain how he was feeling.

Luckily Bucky got it. His hand clasped Steve’s shoulder firmly, “I know,” he said softly, “We’re two unbelievably lucky fellas huh Stevie?”

“Unbelievably,” Steve agreed with a slow nod.

Bucky squeezed his shoulder once before letting go with a firm pat, “Well what do you say we go keep our girls company?”

Steve watched Bucky saunter off with a bright smile on his face and couldn’t hide his own grin (nor did he want to). Yeah, he was unbelievably lucky. He had his soulmate, he had Bucky, he had his team and his family. With a disbelieving smile and shake of his head he smiled at Skye and moved to claim the seat next to her she was rubbing her hand on enticingly.  Wrapping his arm around her shoulder he held her close as he pressed a lingering kiss to her head.

Relaxing into the couch he watched his family interact with a small smile. His heart gave a pleasurable twinge as Skye smiled up at him and he couldn’t help but steal another kiss.

He knew they’d have to have a talk sometime soon, not only to define their relationship a little better but to discuss a few other things. Both of their jobs involve a lot of danger, and there was apparently quite a bit of intel they had to share with one another on top of everything else. That conversation could wait though, for now he just sat back and embraced the feelings of the moment.

He felt peace for the first time in years, his heart was full and he was finally whole.

For right now, in this moment, life was good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it! That's the end of this particular story! I am currently working on my Clint/Jemma sequel, hopefully that will be up soon! Let me know what you thought about this chapter (or the story, either one, I'm not picky!) and leave a comment below! 
> 
> Thank you all for reading! Until next time!


	8. Update (Sorry if you were hoping for another chapter)

Hey, this is for those of you who didn't follow the series but wanted to read the Clint/Jemma sequel. It's up and being updated daily! Go give it a chance! 

And, as always, thanks for reading!


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